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The FT reports that Google (GOOG) has made all the necessary plans to close its Chinese search engine business and is “99.9%” certain it will shut the operation down shortly.
Li Yizhong, minister for industry and information technology, told Google that it could not violate local laws which means that it must censor its search results in the country. Google management has stated that it wants to stay in China but is unwilling to censor results. The current friction between the search engine and government began when hackers broke into Google servers in China and compromised some Gmail accounts. The hackers have not been identified.
The Chinese seem to have won the confrontation. Google needs the market for future growth. China has nearly 400 million people online by some estimates. Although local operator Baidu (BIDU) is the N0.1 search engine in the People’s Republic, Google holds the No.2 place. Yahoo! (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT) have indicated that they will stay in China which gives them a ready chance to expand their search businesses if Google is gone. Read More
Google (GOOG) seems ready to extend its plan not to censor the results of its search engine results in China, which would anger the local government. The People’s Republic expects tech companies based abroad to abide by the same rules that Chinese companies do.
Reuters: 
We had said in our detailed preview that this was a make or break quarter for Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU). So far it looks like the investment community is taking it as a ‘make it’ quarter. The leader of online search in China posted earnings of $1.80 non-GAAP EPS and $184.7 million in revenue versus Thomson Reuters estimates of $1.68 EPS and $180.02 million in revenues. The company gave guidance for next quarter of $176 million to $181 million in revenues, while Thomson Reuters estimates were $170.23 million. The more important data is in the breakdown of the numbers, as well as what the price means if it stays this high in price.
Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) is up for earnings later this evening for us, Wednesday morning for, to report earnings. All the media outlets sell you on “this might be the most important earnings season in years” on a misguided basis, but this is going to be one of the most important reports for Baidu. The implications of not just the report, but the guidance, will have ripples for Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) first. The implications will then have ripples for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) and then perhaps for the distant Yahoo! Inc.(NASDAQ: YHOO). There are also several issues that have built inside Baidu which will require some attention.
This past week was filled with many surprises and earnings are still coming on strong. We wanted to look at some companies that either have unfinished business or are on deck with pending news this coming week for our review of the Unusual Suspects. AMAG Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAG) has a rebuttal, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) needs to be watched like a hawk over the chart, Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) is on deck with earnings, and Denny’s Corp. (NASDAQ: DENN) is another Super Bowl play. We have two issues in M&A with Airgas Inc. (NYSE: ARG) and then potentially in Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU). And we have FDA events pending in Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) and in XenoPort, Inc. (Nasdaq: XNPT).
Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is on deck for earnings this afternoon after the closing bell. Thomson Reuters has estimates at $6.50 EPS and $4.92 billion in revenues. Those estimates were just $6.43 EPS and $4.89 billion in revenues over the weekend, and those figures have gradually crept higher higher in recent weeks. As a reminder on the revenues, that is the ex-TAC (traffic acquisition costs). Google gives no formal guidance for what lies ahead, so the ad rates for what has been so far in January have to be interpolated on top of how much Eric Schmidt says the advertising market is returning to normal.
Reuters: Obama said he will not let companies who owe the US taxes to bid for government work.
Hello, I must be going. I cannot stay, I came to say I must be going. I’m glad I came but just the same I must be going.”–”Hello, I Must Be Going” lyrics by Groucho Marx.
China’s internet population rose to 384 million at the end of 2009, up almost 30% for the year, 
News reports say that there was a great deal of testiness in the conversations among top managers at Google (GOOG) about whether it should threaten to pull out of the Chinese market or be kicked out for quitting the Chinese program to censor its results.
Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) is seeing perhaps the largest trading session of its sort. The notion that Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) might be out of China almost entirely represents a huge opportunity for the company. As Baidu is based in Beijing now, it really does not have to worry about the implications of what the Chinese government does or does not do as far as snooping, as far as its domestic policing policies, its censorship, and more. In fact, Baidu has no real choice in the matter but to exist under whatever rules and regulations the government imposes. Depending upon which data source you use, Baidu has about three-quarters of Chinese domestic search. If Google leaves, that share is likely to grow much further. What we wanted to review was the trading implications of this event via a look into the options trading, the short interest and the charts to look for forward insight.
