爱奇艺私有化“夭折” 持续“烧钱”路在何方？

Baidu Inc may have to keep pumping money into its video-streaming operation for the foreseeable future following the withdrawal of a proposed buyout plan that could have made a standalone business.

收购视频流媒体可以使百度的视频业务独立运营，但百度公司撤回了收购计划。在可预见的未来，百度公司将向视频流媒体投入大量资金。

A consortium led by the chief executive officer of the Chinese online search giant abandoned its bid to buy out its video-streaming operation iQiyi.com Inc after failing to reach an agreement "on the transaction structure and purchase price".

中国在线搜索引擎巨人百度公司的首席执行官李彦宏代表买方财团，宣布撤回之前收购视频流媒体平台爱奇艺的计划，其原因是双方在“交易结构和购买价格”等方面未达成一致。

An investor group led by Baidu CEO Robin Li and iQiyi CEO Gong Yu offered in February to acquire Baidu’s 80.5 percent stake in a deal that valued at $2.8 billion.

今年2月，百度CEO李彦宏和爱奇艺CEO龚宇领导的投资集团计划收购百度持有的爱奇艺80.5%的股份，估值为28亿美元。

The pair informed the board that they had withdrawn the offer after failing to strike a deal despite several rounds of discussions, Nasdaq-listed Baidu said on Monday.

纳斯达克上市公司百度周一表示，双方在几轮讨论之后仍未达成协议，之后致信百度董事会撤回私有化要约。

Baidu’s share price dropped 0.39 percent in trading on Monday, closing at $160.25.

周一，百度股价下跌0.39%，以160.25美元的价格收盘。

The withdrawal came days after New York hedge fund Acacia Partners criticized the online search giant for considering selling iQiyi at a price that is "far too low". The hedge fund, which has 2.6 million Baidu shares, cited an independent research report that said the video-streaming business was worth $5.8 billion.

百度股东纽约对冲基金Acacia Partners批评爱奇艺的出售价格“过于低”。Acacia Partner持有260万百度股票，他指出，独立研究机构对于流媒体视频平台爱奇艺的估值为58亿美元。

Wu Tianhua, an industry observer specialized in US-list Chinese stocks, said it is quite rare to see the withdrawal of a management buyout proposal.

业界观察人士巫天华专于研究美国上市的中国公司股票，他表示，管理层撤回收购方案的情况实属少见。

Wu said that changes in regulations in China had made it difficult for loss-making companies, such as iQiyi to go public. "And it would be very pricey to list iQiyi in China through a backdoor listing," he said.

巫天华表示，中国市场规则的变动使爱奇艺这样的亏损公司很难上市。他说：“爱奇艺要想在中国借壳上市非常昂贵。”

Gong Yu, CEO of iQiyi, said earlier that the company had 20 million paying subscribers in June. The number is small given that the iQiyi app had around 299 million active users in May, said iResearch.

爱奇艺CEO龚宇6月份表示，爱奇艺付费用户已突破2000万。艾瑞咨询集团表示，如果爱奇艺APP5月份的活跃用户已经达到大约2.99亿，那么2000万的付费用户并不算多。