Baidu shares plunge on negative CCTV report

Shares of Baidu (BIDU.NASDAQ) plunged the most intraday since August 10, after a program on China Central Television alleged the country’s leading search engine lacks oversight over its paid advertisers, Bloomberg reported. Shares of the Beijing-based firm fell 3.7% to US$144.66 per share at 3:40 p.m. in New York, amid an 1.9% rally by the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to 1,200.93. The CCTV program said that some of Baidu’s advertising platforms, like Baidu Union and PhoenixNest, were missing internal controls and supervision over the companies that advertise on its site. The news was reminiscent of media reports in 2008, which accused Baidu of leading patients to unlicensed medical care and profiting from selling ad space to a website distributing unlicensed drugs.