Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefBaidu, operator of China’s dominant search engine, has reportedly put up for sale its entire stake in iQiyi, the country’s second largest conventional video streaming platform.
IQiyi has close to 100 million subscribers, nearly all in mainland China.The sale plan was revealed as an exclusive report by the Reuters news agency.
It said that Baidu has set a target price of $7 billion for the company. Baidu currently owns 53% of iQiyi’s equity and controls more than 90% of the voting rights at the firm.
Both Baidu and IQiyi shares are traded in ADR form on the U.S.’s NASDAQ exchange.IQiyi said, “This is purely market rumor,” in a statement emailed to Variety.Founded in 2009, IQiyi was one of the first companies in China to replace DVD stores and internet cafes where Chinese consumers got many of the films at the beginning of the century and to successfully provide an easy means for subscribers to make monthly recurring payments without a credit card.
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