China's online search leader Baidu Inc. announced on May 7 it will pay $370 million to buy the online video business PPS, in its latest attempt to grab market share in the highly competitive industry.

Baidu will integrate the PPS online video business into its own video platform iQiyi. It expects the combined entity to become China's largest online video platform by number of mobile users and video viewing time. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of this year. The acquisition is Baidu's latest step to diversify businesses beyond its core search sector.

China's online video industry has struggled for profits due to the high cost of content. Eyeing long-term advertising revenues in the booming mobile Internet sector, major market players have stepped up efforts to develop their mobile user base despite current difficulties.

The latest deal would make iQiyi a more competent contender to industry leader Youku Tudou Inc., which was created last year through the merger of the country's two major video giants Youku and Tudou.

Energy Collaboration

China's largest offshore oil producer announced on May 6 that it has inked an agreement to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) from BG Group and increased its stakes in an LNG project in Australia.

Under the contract, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) will purchase 5 million tons per annum (mtpa) of LNG, starting in 2015, from BG Group's global LNG portfolio for 20 years.

By then, the CNOOC's mid-and-long-term LNG contracted volumes will reach 21.6 mtpa, the company said in a statement on its website.

CNOOC will also acquire a 40-percent equity interest in QCLNG Train 1, increasing its equity ownership from 10 percent to 50 percent. It will acquire a 20-percent equity interest in the reserves and resources of certain BG Group tenements in the Walloons Fairway region of the Surat Basin, Queensland, increasing its equity ownership from 5 percent to 25 percent. It will acquire a 25-percent equity interest in certain other upstream tenements held by BG Group in the same region.

CNOOC and BG Group will also jointly invest in building two more LNG transportation ships in China. Those transactions will be completed by the end of this year.

Inflation Rises

China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, grew 2.4 percent year on year in April, up from 2.1 percent in March, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on May 9.

The bureau attributed the increase mainly to an unusual increase in vegetable prices during that month as low temperatures and scarce rainfalls disrupted supplies.

In April, food prices, which account for nearly one third of weighting in China's CPI, increased 4 percent year on year, with the prices of vegetables rising 5.9 percent, said the NBS.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices in April edged up 0.2 percent.

The NBS also said that China's producer price index (PPI), which measures wholesale inflation, fell 2.6 percent year on year in April, marking the 14th straight month of decline and the steepest drop in six months, pointing to continued weak market demand.