Rumor: Baidu Acquires Perfect World Literature Subsidiary
TechWeb, 11/21/13
A source close to Chinese Internet firm Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) has revealed that the company is in final negotiations to acquire Chinese literature, comics, and animation website Zongheng.com, which is owned and operated by Huanxiang Zongheng Network Technologies, a subsidiary of Perfect World (Nasdaq: PWRD). According to the source, further information on the deal is expected to be released on November 26.
Zongheng carries over 100,000 online book titles, with daily visits from over 2.6 mln unique IP addresses and more than 60 mln page views every day. Mobile reading accounts for more than one-third of site traffic, with mobile reading showing growth of approximately 50% over last year.
Zongheng operates iOS, Android, and Windows Phone apps for its mobile reading service. The company has not yet achieved profitability.
Editor's Note: For more information on this topic, please see "Rumor: Baidu to Acquire Perfect World Literature Subsidiary," MD 10/14/13 and "Rumor: Xiaomi to Acquire Perfect World Literature Subsidiary," MD 10/24/13 issues.
Keywords: online literature mobile literature proportion from mobile users Perfect World Internet Baidu PWRD Zongheng BIDU M&A