Baidu gets ready to IPO

From Red Herring: Baidu gets ready to IPO

"Baidu, China’s most popular search engine, has retained an underwriter and entered its silent period in preparation for an initial public offering on Nasdaq this fall, according to several industry insiders in China.

The IPO, which would be the first for a stand-alone search engine in China, is one of the most anticipated for a Chinese company and could represent the beginning of a “fifth wave” of Nasdaq listings for Chinese Internet/technology plays, following the Internet major portals (Sina, Sohu, and Netease), the wireless value-added service providers (Linktone and Kongzhong), the travel booking web sites (C-Trip and eLong), and the job search sites (51job, with Zhaopin.com likely to follow)." Read more