Baidu down on report China unlikely to approve acquisition of JOYY's YY Live

JOYY

24/09/2021 15:02

(Updates)
    ** U.S.-listed shares of Chinese tech firm  BIDU.O  down as
much as 1.6% at $157.90 - set to snap three-day gaining streak
    ** China's antitrust regulator is unlikely to approve BIDU's
$3.6 bln acquisition of JOYY Inc's  YY.O  video-based domestic
live streaming business YY Live, Reuters reports, citing two
sources with direct knowledge of the matter  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2QJ255
    ** The Baidu-JOYY deal would be the latest multi-billion
dollar transaction to stumble amid China's broad crackdown on
private cos, notably those in the internet sector
    ** Meanwhile, short-seller Muddy Waters says YY Live is
"near-total fraud" but BIDU wanted to buy it anyway
    ** "We suspected that real cash to be paid was less than
announced, so buying fake biz could've been an opportunity to
rebalance books," tweets Muddy Water (https://bit.ly/3EH3Rum)
    ** BIDU and YY did not immediately respond to Reuters'
requests for comments
    ** Shares of YY also down 6.3% at $48.92 in early trading
    ** This comes amid Beijing's regulatory tightening on tech
firms including Alibaba Group  BABA.N  and Tencent Holdings
 0700.HK  
    ** In its latest move, China also intensifies a crackdown on
cryptocurrency trading  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2QQ0MG
    ** As of last close, BIDU and YY had fallen ~26% and ~35% 
this year

 (Reporting by Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru)
 ((tiyashi.datta@thomsonreuters.com))