百度出售携程10亿股票，打算放弃携程？

Baidu, the search engine group, is selling about $1bn of its shares in Ctrip, China’s largest travel booking website, bolstering its cash on hand after a difficult year for profits.

搜索引擎百度(Baidu)出售了中国最大旅游预订网站携程(Ctrip)约10亿美元股票，在经历了盈利困难的一年后增加手头的现金。

Ctrip, which owns Skyscanner, the UK flight search engine and is known as Trip.com outside China, said on Wednesday in a stock exchange filing that it will sell 31.3m of its Nasdaq-listed shares owned by the Chinese search engine.

旗下拥有英国航班搜索引擎天巡网(Skyscanner)的携程，在中国境外以Trip.com为人所知。该公司周三在一份证交所申报文件中表示，将出售由百度持有的其在纳斯达克(Nasdaq)上市的3130万股票。

The sale makes up a third of Baidu’s stake in Ctrip, and Baidu will remain its largest shareholder after the deal.

这笔交易占百度所持携程股份的三分之一，交易完成后，百度仍将是携程的最大股东。

Baidu has struggled to maintain its position in the “tech trinity” of China’s most valuable tech companies alongside Alibaba and Tencent, which were faster to adapt to the mobile age.

百度竭力保住其作为中国市值最高的“科技三巨头”之一的地位。另两个巨头——阿里巴巴(Alibaba)和腾讯(Tencent)——更快适应了移动时代。

Profits have suffered in recent years as a result of scandals over medical advertising and falling ad revenues.

近年，由于医疗广告丑闻和广告收入下降，百度的利润受到了影响。

Baidu, whose primary app offering is its search engine and news feed, is facing harsh competition in advertising revenues from apps that offer transactions and social media data for better targeted advertising, such as Tencent’s WeChat social messaging app and Meituan Dianping’s takeaway app.

百度提供的主要app是其搜索引擎和新闻递送。该公司在广告收入上面临着腾讯(Tencent)的社交信息应用微信(WeChat)和美团点评(Meituan Dianping)外卖app等竞争对手的严峻挑战，后者可提供交易和社交媒体数据，可以更有针对性地投放广告。

In May, the company reported its first quarterly loss since listing in New York in 2005. Cost-cutting helped the company return to profit in August, but its net profits were still down 63 per cent on the previous year.

今年5月，百度公布了自2005年在纽约上市以来的首次季度亏损。8月份，成本削减帮助该公司恢复了盈利，但其净利润仍较上年下降63%。

Its shares, too, have more than halved during the past 12 months.

过去12个月，该公司的股价也下跌了一半以上。

Thomas Chong, an analyst at Jefferies Hong Kong, said Baidu might use the proceeds from the Ctrip sale to fund share repurchases. In May, the company approved a $1bn share repurchase scheme.

杰富瑞(Jefferies)驻香港的分析师Thomas Chong表示，百度可能会利用出售携程股票的所得回购股票。5月，该公司批准了一项价值10亿美元的股票回购计划。

“Baidu is trying to shrink some of its business and sell its fringe businesses, because their key business, such as AI, is seen to be a bit hard up,” said Ma Xuhua of Driscm Consulting in Shanghai.

“百度正试图缩减部分业务，出售边缘业务，因为业界认为其人工智能等关键业务有点资金拮据。”上海达睿咨询(Driscm Consulting)的Ma Xuhua表示。

Baidu has poured money into AI research for its Apollo driverless car project. Baidu has started testing driverless cars in Beijing with Daimler and Ford but the project has yet to yield meaningful revenues.

百度为其阿波罗无人驾驶汽车项目的人工智能研究投入了大量资金。该公司已开始与戴姆勒(Daimler)和福特(Ford)在北京测试无人驾驶汽车，但该项目尚未产生可观的收入。

Baidu is unlikely to abandon Ctrip, as it is a steady flow of cash, added Mr Ma.

Ma Xuhua补充道，百度不太可能放弃携程，因为后者是一个稳定的现金流。