NetEase seeks to raise $300M via a spin-off of its news operation, either through a U.S. initial public offering or a potential sale, according to media reports.
The move aims at re-positioning the company itself as a top online games player, says Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter.
As one of the oldest online web portals in China, Netease's news operation is the second largest, with more than 10 billion page views in July, second only to Tencent Holdings Ltd.'s news platform.
But some business insiders say news contributes only a small part to the company's overall revenue, which is driven mostly by online games.
The Hangzhou-based company doubled its net revenue to 1.4 billion US dollars in the second quarter, with three-quarters of that generated from online games, according to its financial report.
Some sources also revealed that the company's cross-border e-commerce service and music service has already had their own spin-offs, yet the company has denied to comment on these specific cases.
For more on this topic, CRI's Paul James has earlier spoken with Doug Young, associate professor at Fudan University and former China company news chief at Reuters.
