Google sells stake in Baidu

[bill]

article [businessweek.com]

Google registered to sell all of the 749,625 shares of Beijing-based Baidu.com Inc. it owns, according to a Tuesday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
...
Google bought about 2.6 percent of Baidu.com's outstanding Class A ordinary shares for about $5 million before the Chinese search engine's initial public offering last year. The shares are valued at more than $60 million, based on Baidu.com's current stock price.

Does this mean the gloves are off?

[vincevincevince]

Keeping shares in Baidu can be seen as a tactic to reduce losses if Google failed to capture a slice of the Chinese market. Selling them suggests that given market performance and future intentions there is little risk of Google failing in China.

[bill]

The Google sale appears to be impacting the Baidu share price negatively.

article [bloomberg.com]

Baidu.com Shares Fall After Google Sells 2.6% Stake
Shares of Baidu.com Inc., China's most-used Internet search engine, fell as much as 6.8 percent after Google Inc. said it sold its 2.6 percent stake in the Beijing-based company to develop its own business in the nation.