Baidu considering an IPO

possibly within the first half of 2005

[bill]

article [reuters.co.uk]

Top Chinese Internet search engine Baidu.com aims to raise roughly $200 million (106 million pounds) in a U.S. IPO this year, sources familiar with the situation said, looking to emulate last year's blockbuster listing by search king Google, which holds a small stake in the mainland firm.

Baidu is eyeing a listing as early as the first half of the year and is considering both the Nasdaq and New York exchanges.

...

Investment banks Credit Suisse First Boston and Goldman Sachs are expected to underwrite the IPO, a source said. Both declined comment.

It's not surprising that Baidu would be taking this route. They've taken a lot of the lessons learned from Google to heart.

As Baidu is far and away the top dog in China's search market it will be interesting to see where this leads. As quoted in the article, Only the United States has a bigger web audience than China.

[moneymancn]

I live in China so see Chinese Management Techniques" if you can call them that! daily.
I hope they have swallowed enough "honesty Pills" when they do get the money but if they try to emulate the current USA role model (Not Google.com)like Worldcom,Enron and loads of others(list too long to print) they will get through the money very quickly.
Not mine I might add!

MM