Baidu boosts consumer base with $160 million stake in Chinese group-buying firm

Baidu Inc, China's largest search engine provider, will acquire a stake in Chinese group-buying website Nuomi Holdings Inc for $160 million as it accelerates its push into the country's rapidly growing mobile Internet market.

Baidu will buy newly issued ordinary shares of Nuomi, a wholly-owned subsidiary of social network company Renren Inc , representing about a 59 percent stake, said the search engine provider in a statement on Friday.

Nuomi, a group-buying and local information service similar to Groupon Inc , would complement Baidu's existing mobile location-based services (LBS) and maps platforms, said Jennifer Li, chief financial officer of Baidu.

[caption id="attachment_1056557" align="alignleft" width="380"] A screengrab of Baidu.[/caption]

"Nuomi's broad geographical sales coverage and established consumer base will be instrumental in helping Baidu build out our LBS platform for local merchants," Li said in the statement.

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Baidu's acquisition follows its final agreement on August 14 to buy the 91 Wireless app store business from Netdragon Websoft for $1.85 billion - the biggest deal in China's Internet sector.

Domestic rivals Tencent Holdings Ltd and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd are also investing to stimulate revenue growth, with Alibaba this year buying stakes in Sina Corp's social-networking website Weibo and in navigation and maps firm AutoNavi Holdings Ltd .

Reuters