The largest search engine of China, Baidu Inc is now processing the acquisition of PPS Net TV, a Chinese online video company. The transaction was first reported in China Business News last Thursday and it quoted anonymous sources.
Previously, Baidu acquired majority shareholdings in its financially beleaguered online video unit, iQiyi. The online video industry in China is currently hyper competitive with ever increasing costs of content and maintenance. Back in early 2012, Youku Tudou Inc had acquired Tudou through an all-share deal, making the resulting company the largest video online gaming player in China.
Once acquired, PPS as well as iQiyi would continue in its operations as independent brands but would share back-end technical integration management, as confirmed by the newspaper.
A Baidu spokesman had declined to make a comment while a PPS spokesperson could not be reached for comment.
According to latest estimates by Analysys International, Youku-Todou holds about 32.4% of the online video content market in China. iQiyi holds just 6.7% of the market,
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