Sogou sale likely soon

A takeover of Sogou, the online search subsidiary of Sohu and China's third largest search engine, is likely to be announced in the near future, Chinese technology news portal tech.qq.com reported Monday, citing unnamed sources with knowledge of the matter.

Sogou will hold an important strategy announcement event in July, at which long-circulating rumors regarding an acquisition of the search company may be confirmed, according to the report, which revealed the event was initially planned to be held on June 18 but was postponed for unknown reasons.

Qihoo 360, the country's second largest search engine, is likely to win the acquisition deal worth up to $1.4 billion, said the report, quoting unnamed industry insiders.

But the report said Baidu, the country's top search engine, is also in talks with Sohu. If Qihoo 360 succeeds in acquiring Sogou, Sogou's CEO Wang Xiaochuan will likely stay with the company, the report said.

Sohu has yet to respond to this, but Wang said in May that the sale rumors were "not credible." Baidu and Qihoo have yet to comment on the report.

The purchase deal, if confirmed, would signal further consolidation in the country's Internet sector, which has seen intensified competition in recent years since the advent of the mobile Internet era.

After months of speculation about Baidu's possible purchase of online video service provider PPS Net TV, Baidu finally announced the deal worth $370 million in early May, the latest sign of a rising tide of mergers and acquisitions in the domestic Internet industry.