China’s second-largest search engine is planning to buy a rival in a deal expected to be worth up to $1.4bn.
Qihoo 360 Technology hopes to buy out Sohu.com’s search engine Sogou in an attempt to strengthen the company’s position in the Chinese market against top rival Baidu, which manages over 80% of the total online queries in China.
According to a report, Sogou handled about 5.5% search-engine queries in China in the March quarter, while Qihoo 360 managed about 9% of queries in the country.
Qihoo 360 said that the Company continues to explore various potential investment and strategic alliance opportunities from time to time.
"No agreement has been reached with respect to a significant transaction in such nature," the company added.
"In keeping with its US securities law obligations and as a matter of good investor relations, Qihoo 360 will update the market should there be any new material development."
