BEIJING, CHINA, February 22, 2005 - SOHU.COM Inc. (NASDAQ:
SOHU), China's leading online media, communications, commerce and mobile
value-added services company, today announced it has repurchased 885,605 shares
of common stock between February 10 and February 17, 2005.
SOHU reports that in the period from February 10 to February 17, 2005, it
purchased 885,605 shares at an average price per share of US$15.66, for total
consideration of US$13,873,000 including a brokerage commission of US$0.03 per
share. This completes the current stock repurchase program approved by the Board
of Directors on April 26, 2004, and extended on October 27, 2004. In November
2004 the company purchased 360,500 shares for total consideration of
US$6,125,000. Earlier, in May 2004, the company purchased 1,000,000 shares for
total consideration of US$17,752,000.
"Through three stock buybacks in the past ten months we have repurchased
2,246,105 shares, or 6% of total shares outstanding. We believe the buy-back is
an attractive investment for the company and sends a positive message to our
shareholders," said Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO of SOHU.
Safe Harbor Statement This announcement contains forward-looking
statements. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about
our beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. These statements
are based on current plans, estimates and projections, and therefore you should
not place undue reliance on them. Forward-looking statements involve inherent
risks and uncertainties. We caution you that a number of important factors could
cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any
forward-looking statement. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are
not limited to, SOHU’s historical and possible future losses, limited operating
history, uncertain regulatory landscape in the People's Republic of China,
fluctuations in quarterly operating results, and the company's reliance on
online advertising sales, wireless services (most wireless revenues are
collected from a few mobile telecom operators), online games and e-commerce for
its revenues. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in
SOHU's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2004,
and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
About SOHU SOHU.COM Inc. (NASDAQ: SOHU) is China's premier online
brand and indispensable to the daily life of millions of Chinese who use the
portal network for their news, search, e-mail, wireless messaging, instant
messaging, browsing, games and shopping. SOHU has built one of the most
comprehensive matrices of Chinese language web properties and proprietary search
engines, consisting of the mass portal and leading online media destination www.sohu.com; interactive search
engine www.sogou.com; the #1
online alumni club www.chinaren.com; #1 games information portal www.17173.com; top real estate
website www.focus.cn; and
wireless value-added services provider www.goodfeel.com.cn. This network of web properties offers the
vast SOHU user community very broad choices regarding information,
entertainment, communication and commerce. SOHU corporate services consist
of online advertising on its matrix of websites as well as paid listing and
bidding listing on its in-house developed search directory and engine. SOHU also
offers three types of consumer services. SOHU offers wireless value-added
services such as news, information, ringtone and picture content sent over
mobile phones. The company also operates two massively multi-player online
role-playing games and manages a business-to-consumer e-commerce
platform. SOHU.COM, established by Dr. Charles Zhang, one of China's Internet
pioneers, is in its ninth year of operation. For further
information: Dahlia Wei SOHU Investor Relations and
Communications Tel: +86 10 6272 6598 E-mail: ir@sohu-inc.com http://www.sohu.com/about/English/ |