Baidu Announces Agreement to Invest US$306 Million in Travel Search Engine Qunar

Qunar, the leading travel search engine in China, and Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:

) jointly announced today a definitive agreement under which Baidu has committed to make a US$306 million strategic investment in Qunar. The investment will make Baidu the majority shareholder of Qunar. Founded in 2005, Qunar offers Chinese consumers real-time searches for air and rail tickets, hotels, and tour packages. Qunar also provides travel-related resources such as group-buying deals and user discussion forums. According to iResearch, a China-based independent research firm, Qunar ranked number one among travel websites in China as measured by daily unique visitors in March 2011. Qunar has the widest coverage of any travel search engine in China, with more than 11,000 air routes and 102,000 hotels worldwide. The closing of the definitive agreement is subject to customary conditions. The parties currently expect that the transaction will close in the third quarter of 2011. After the investment, Qunar will continue to operate as an independent company, while both companies will cooperate in certain areas of online travel search. Baidu plans to finance the investment through obtaining a third-party loan facility. "Travel has long been one of the top categories on Baidu, and the number of travelers in China has been growing very rapidly, so this is a market of obvious strategic importance to us," said Jennifer Li, Chief Financial Officer of Baidu. "Our investment in Qunar will create an even better search experience for users planning trips," she said.