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送交者: fyi 于 2008-11-17, 21:05:51:

Baidu Shares Fall As Much As 27%
By SHARA TIBKEN

Baidu.com Inc. tumbled as much as 27% Monday after a Chinese media outlet reported the company accepted money from medical companies to buy keywords, but analysts said the news should have little impact on the Chinese-language Internet search provider.

CCTV said the Web sites that purchased popular medical keywords were typically selling drugs, and Piper Jaffray said in a note that the sites likely were "non-accredited medical Web sites that should not score as high on sponsored results."

The note from Piper Jaffray said Baidu confirmed the news on SINA, a Chinese news site, but Baidu representatives weren't immediately available for comment to Dow Jones.

In the note, Piper Jaffray also said the questionable medical Web sites were removed from Baidu's search results. "The removal of these Web sites is an acknowledgment that sales techniques allowed questionable Web sites to buy their way to top positions for consumer-sensitive verticals," the firm said.

Shares closed down 25% to $134.09 after hitting a 52-week low of $130.51 earlier in the day. Shares were virtually flat in the after-hours market.

Analysts at Piper Jaffray and Pacific Crest Securities said the financial impact on Baidu is likely to be less than it appears, with pharmaceutical and medical keywords making up a small portion of the total keywords sold. Pacific Crest analyst Steve Weinstein said in an interview he thinks the selling is an overreaction and any impact wouldn't likely be very material.

"I think there's going to be such a modest impact because, if you kick all those advertisers out, it's likely there are other bidders for the keywords they were bidding on," Mr. Weinstein said. "There are going to be legitimate advertisers who want that traffic."

Mr. Weinstein added that the company will likely go back and evaluate its practices. "It's legal and acceptable in China, but I think Baidu is going to take a look at it and see if that's what they want to be doing," he said in an interview.

Write to Shara Tibken at shara.tibken@dowjones.com




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