Beijing – A high-placed individual at leading Chinese search engine Baidu said the company’s IPO on the Nasdaq stock exchange will take place in early July.
Baidu’s IPO has easily been the most anticipated listing of a Chinese company this year, and is expected to be heavily subscribed.
The Baidu manager, who declined to be identified, flatly denied a report published on Wednesday on Chinese online news site eNet.com that quoted an anonymous source close to Baidu’s management board saying that Baidu’s IPO would take place this week.
Baidu, which has enlisted Credit Suisse First Boston and Goldman Sachs to underwrite the listing, is expected to list with a valuation of $800 million and will sell an estimated 25 percent of the company in its IPO.
In 2004, San Jose, California-based Google led a group of investors that bought a roughly 10 percent stake in Baidu for a valuation said to be just over $100 million. Google, which Shanghai-based Internet research firm iResearch ranks as the No. 2 search engine in China by frequency of use, has 30.1 percent market share behind Baidu’s 44.7 percent.
Baidu’s other major investors include IDG, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Peninsula Capital, and Integrity Partners.
Google Plans
There has been speculation in the Chinese Internet industry that Google will make a bid to acquire Baidu shortly after its listing. The global search giant is rumored to be looking for an entrée into China, but has yet to hire any staff on the mainland. A Google spokesperson declined to comment on any such moves.
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