Google Eyes China Acquisitions

Google reportedly is gearing up to acquire one or two companies in China, and hopes to invest in as many as five during the next year in a bid to better compete against the country’s leading search company Baidu.com.

President of Google China Kai-Fu Lee told reporters about the planned deals, according to several local online media outlets.

Last month, Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said, on an earnings conference call, the “tenacity” of Google would bring “significant victories in China over the next few years.”

Earlier this year, the company invested an undisclosed amount in the Chinese peer-to-peer filing sharing site Xunlei Networking Technology. It also has a mobile search deal with China Mobile Communications and the Chinese web portal Sina.