Baidu Inc. is selling about a third of its stake in online travel site Ctrip.com International Ltd., generating around $1 billion to counter a slowing economy and intensifying competition in its key advertising business.
Ctrip announced Thursday a proposed secondary offering of 31.3 million American depositary shares held by Baidu. That represents around 30% of its stake in Ctrip and is equivalent to around $1 billion according to Ctrip’s current share price.
