je.st
news
Tencent buys stake in Sogou search engine
2013-09-16 17:02:00| Telecompaper Headlines
(Telecompaper) Tencent announced an agreement to take a minority stake in the internet search engine Sogou. Tencent will pay USD 448 million for preference shares giving it 36.5 percent of the capital and 20.6 percent of voting rights in Sogou, the Chinese search engine owned by Sohu.com. As part of the deal Tencent's own search business, Soso will be merged with Sogou. Tencent and Sogou also agreed to cross-promote each other's products and collaborate on developing new services. Sogou Pinyin and Sogou Search will gain direct access to the user base of Tencent's online and mobile social communities, including the popular WeChat app. Sogou will use the proceeds of the sale to pay a special dividend to shareholders of USD 301 million.
Tags: search
engine
buys
stake
Category:Telecommunications