Search Site

Trends banner

Eni profit falls due to dip in oil prices

Q2 net profit fell by 18% to $637 million.

Emirates NBD H1 profit $3.40bn

Total income rose by 12 percent in the same period.

ADIB H1 pre-tax profit $1.08bn

Q2 pre-tax net profit increases by 14 percent.

AstraZeneca to invest $50bn in US

Bulk of funds to go into a Virginia manufacturing center.

UAB net profit up by 50% for H1

Total assets increase by 11 percent.

Baidu cancels YY Live deal

The company in November announced modest year-on-year revenue growth of 6.0 percent for the third quarter of 2023. (AFP)
  • Baidu, the country's top search engine company, agreed in 2020 to buy JOYY Inc's Chinese live video business YY Live for $3.6 billion
  • However, Baidu said in a Hong Kong stock exchange filing on Monday that it would terminate the purchase agreement

Beijing, China – Chinese internet giant Baidu has said it was canceling the planned multi-billion-dollar purchase of livestreaming platform YY Live, partly blaming its inability to get government approval.

Baidu, the country’s top search engine company, agreed in 2020 to buy JOYY Inc’s Chinese live video business YY Live for $3.6 billion.

Baidu founder Robin Li said at the time the deal would “catapult Baidu into a leading platform for live streaming and diversify our revenue source”.

But Baidu said in a Hong Kong stock exchange filing on Monday that it would terminate the purchase agreement.

It explained that “the closing of the proposed acquisition is subject to certain conditions including, among others, obtaining necessary regulatory approvals from governmental authorities”.

As of December 31, 2023, it said, those conditions had not been reached.

The deal was originally expected to be completed by 2021.

Livestreaming is a multimillion-dollar business in China, generating huge profits for e-commerce giants and popular influencers.

Baidu has faced increased competition in recent years from domestic rivals including Tencent — which operates the WeChat messaging platform — and ByteDance, which owns short-video app TikTok and its mainland Chinese equivalent, Douyin.

The company has sought to diversify into cloud computing, autonomous driving, artificial intelligence (AI) and other sectors — with mixed results.

Baidu’s shares fell in March after investors were unimpressed by the company’s ChatGPT-like AI software, “Ernie Bot”.

The company in November announced modest year-on-year revenue growth of 6.0 percent for the third quarter of 2023.