China's Baidu to invest in taxi-hailing app Uber

BEIJING: Baidu is buying a minority stake in Uber Technologies, giving the car-booking company a boost as it expands in China, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Uber will receive cash and non-cash assets, including Baidu’s online resources as owner of China’s biggest internet search engine, the person said, asking not to be identified as the matter is private. The investment may be worth as much as $600 million, China National Radio reported earlier.

Baidu’s investment gives the search company a slice of the market in China that has been dominated by startups backed by Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings, the nation’s biggest internet companies. Uber this month completed a round of funding that valued the car-booking application at $40 billion.