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Oak Pacific to buy 23.7% of eLong's floating shares
By Yu Hongyan (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-02-18 18:43

China's leading online platforms provider, Oak Pacific Interactive, spent $18.5 million for 5.28 million, or 23.7 percent of the NASDAQ-listed eLong Inc's floating shares, the online travel agency said in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

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The swap accounts for 11 percent of eLong's general capital, according to eLong CEO Cui Guangfu.

However, Oak Pacific will not use this purchase for a backdoor listing, Oak Pacific CEO Chen Yizhou said in an interview.

Founded in 2003, Oak Pacific, is the platform provider for xiaonei.com, Facebook's clone in China. The company got a 40-billion-yen ($384 million) capital injection from Japan's Softbank in 2008, which holds 40 percent of its shares.

Ten-year-old eLong went public on the NASDAQ in 2004, with the world's largest online travelling agency Expedia owning a 52 percent stake.

eLong has experienced four consecutive quarterly losses starting from the fourth quarter of 2007. Its loss in the third quarter of 2008 totaled 15.55 million yuan. The company is expected to release its Q4 and full-year financial report for 2008 on Feb 26.


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