BEIJING, CHINA, May 31, 2005 -
SOHU.com (NASDAQ: SOHU), China's leading online media, communications, commerce
and mobile value-added services company, reports that it has closed the
acquisition of Go2Map Inc. and Go2Map Inc.’s affiliate, Beijing Tu Xing Tian Xia
Information Consultancy Co., Ltd., collectively referred to as Go2Map, one of
the leading online mapping service providers in China.
The acquisition involves the payment of US$9.3 million in cash, of which
US$400,000 had been paid as of the signing of the share purchase agreement, and
US$8.9 million was paid upon the closing of the acquisition on May 31, 2005.An
additional amount, not to exceed US$2.5 million, will be paid over two years
after the closing of the acquisition, subject to the satisfaction and attainment
of certain post closing operating and financial milestones of Go2Map.
“We believe the Go2Map acquisition will enhance our overall competitive
strength as a portal and search engine as we integrate Go2Map’s rich
technological expertise in professional location-based information. We expect
Go2Map to contribute to our strength in localization search as it allows us to
offer our consumers more differentiated and compelling content in our drive to
make SoGou one of the leading online search engines for the Chinese market,”
said Charles Zhang, chairman and CEO of SOHU.COM.
This week SOHU’s proprietary search engine SoGou launched its mapping search
services in open beta version, integrating Go2Map's technology to provide
convenient maps, location and transportation information to SoGou users.
Currently SoGou has over three million pieces of mapping data, covering 200
cities across China, including high-way information, intra-city transportation
as well as street information, which are all easily accessible to users by use
of key words.
SoGou’s mapping search services are a highly targeted
marketing tool for small and medium sized enterprises. These enterprises can
mark out their business location and contact information in SoGou’s mapping
database.
“Since its launch in August of last year SoGou has developed very fast, with
our database comprising close to one billion Chinese language indexed web pages
and traffic jumping into the Top 20 of most visited Chinese websites according
to Alexa.com. The launch of SoGou mapping services is expected to be another
milestone in SoGou’s ongoing development,” further commented Charles Zhang,
chairman and CEO of SOHU.COM.
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 annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31,
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/ |