Baidu Nearing Deal To Acquire JOYY’s Domestic Operations

Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) has almost completed negotiations to buy JOYY’s operations in China, according to business digital media Jiemian. The deal excludes JOYY’s overseas business, which is said to continue running independently.

Due to the rumor of Baidu’s purchase last Friday, JOYY’s stock price reached $85.13 before the closing, up 5.22% with the market value mounting to $6.879 billion.

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As shown in the company’s financial report of the second quarter of 2020, the monthly active users (MAUs) in the scale of global live-streaming business increased by 20.4% with a growth of 102.3 million year-on-year.

The report also revealed JOYY’s MAU has risen to 41.2 million with a 6% growth compared to the same period last year.

Livestreaming as a sector is also one of Baidu’s deployment emphasis.

“As a new form of media, livestreaming can solve users’ need for knowledge and information when using Baidu. For example, when a user searches for information about a certain type of illness, entries for a doctor’s livestreaming channel will pop up and he can consult with the doctor directly,” said Dou Shen, Baidu’s executive vice president.

Both parties, Baidu and JOYY, did not comment on the issue as of the publishing of this article.