Baidu Lives up to its Translated Name in recent Nasdaq Listing

Filed in archive Private Equity on August 8, 2005

Investment analysts in New York and Hong Kong are still reeling from last week's surprising Nasdaq listing of Beijing-based Baidu. The popular Baidu.com, launched in 2001, more than lived up to its translated name, which means a "hundred times." After all, it is the most frequently used search engine in China but many analysts seriously doubt that this business model merits its stratospheric valuation in excess of $4 billion.

Baidu shares rocketed almost 354% to $122.54 providing a temporary resurgence in the pre-dot.com hyper-inflated and unjustified valuations. Have investors forgotten so soon what happened to Chinadotcom and other China internet investments?

For sure, last Friday's listing brought smiles and celebrations in the offices of the venture companies, like Draper Fisher Jurvetson ePlanet Ventures and Google Inc., Integrity Partners and Peninsula Capital, Bridger Management, China Equity, China Value, and Venture TDF. What do Asia pundits really mean when they proclaim there are no grand exit strategies in China investment plays? The total VC investment capital in Baidu amounted to almost $100 million.

To be sure, there are and remain paradoxes in this public listing of an Internet company when the government still cracks down on the "free flow of information" on the Net.

Insiders have revealed to me that Google does recognize the need to formulate a more deeply embedded China strategy, including expanding staffing for an eventual permanent office and staff in the country despite its relatively late arrival.

Google which owns a 2.6 percent stake in Baidu.com, apparently made a last minute effort to increase their equity stake before Friday's successful Nasdaq listing but were rebuffed by senior management at Baidu. This search engine company,may indeed prove to the essential Chinese Google in name only, but time will tell whether it will come ever come close to matching it in profitablility.

One financial certitude in this celebrated IPO is cystal clear. This offering will only continue to fuel the VCs enormous investment appetite in the Middle Kingdom.