China's Baidu gets offer for its 80.5 pct stake in Qiyi

REUTERS - Chinese Internet search company Baidu Inc said it received an offer for its 80.5 percent stake in online video company Qiyi.com Inc from the chief executives of the two firms. Shares of Baidu, sometimes referred to as China's Google, rose 4.1 percent to $147.21 in premarket trading on Friday. Qiyi has an enterprise value of $2.8 billion, Baidu said in statement. Baidu said its board had formed a special committee to evaluate the offer. The search company bought the majority stake in the then loss-making Qiyi in 2012, a push into the highly competitive Chinese digital media market. Up to Thursday's close, Baidu shares had fallen more than 34 percent in the past 12 months. (Reporting by Abhirup Roy and Anya George Tharakan in Bengaluru; Editing by Kirti Pandey)