Sina plans New York IPO for China's Twitter clone Weibo

Hong Kong: Chinese internet company Sina plans to spin off its Twitter-like microblog service, Weibo, in a US initial public offering to raise $500 million. A person with knowledge of the deal said Tuesday that the company plans an IPO in New York. The person, who requested anonymity because they weren't authorised to speak publicly about the deal, said Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse have been hired to manage the stock listing. The share sale is expected to be carried out in the second quarter. The plans were first reported by the Financial Times on Monday. Chinese microblogs have enjoyed explosive growth but have been crimped recently by tighter Chinese government controls. Chinese microblogs had 281 million users at the end of 2013, down 9 percent over the previous year.Associated Press