From the Financial Times:
Google sells stake in China’s Baidu
Google Inc. has sold its roughly 2 percent stake in rival Baidu.com Inc. on May 25, the market leader in China’s Internet Web search market, according to a U.S. regulatory filing released late on Wednesday.
A form 144 insider stock sale registration was filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by Google detailing the sale of 749,625 Baidu Class A ordinary shares.
As a pre-IPO insider, Google was restricted initially from selling its holdings in Baidu following its high-flying initial public offering on Aug. 5, 2005.
“We have disposed of our modest investment in Baidu,” Google spokeswoman Debbie Frost confirmed. “It has always been our goal to grow our own successful business in China and we are very focused on that,” she said in an e-mailed statement.
- Imagethief: Google drops Baidu stake
- Image from comparison search engine Baigoo which is not connected to Google or Baidu by any business relationship