Tencent Holdings offered to buy out the 60.8% of search engine Sogou Inc. that it doesn’t already own for $9 a share, or $2.13 billion, based on the number of shares outstanding, Sogou parent Sohu.com Ltd. said, reported Caixin.
If completed, the transaction would result in Sogou becoming a privately held, indirectly wholly owned subsidiary of Tencent, and Sogou’s American depositary shares would be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange, Sohu said.
Tencent already holds 39.2% of Sogou, while Sohu has 33.8%. Sogou collaborates extensively with Tencent as the default general search engine in various Tencent products. About 35% of Sogou’s total search traffic measured by page views came from Tencent users in December 2019, according to Sogou’s annual report.
Sogou controls 22% of China’s online search market, according to StatCounter, placing it in second place behind Baidu’s 66%.
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