Beijing, 21st May: Baidu, Inc., the leading Chinese language Internet search provider, announced the company has entered into an agreement with unnamed investors to sell its stake in the Global DU business, which provides ad and tools apps.

Under the terms of the agreement, Baidu will sell its majority stake reducing its ownership down to approximately 34% of Global DU. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the third quarter of 2018.

Separately, Baidu announced the resignation of COO, Qi Lu, effective in July 2018. Lu will continue to serve as vice chairman of the board of directors. At the same time, the company announced the promotion of Haifeng Wang to senior vice president and general manager of Baidu’s AI Group (AIG).