Chinese actress Zhao Wei has taken a major stake in Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd's film division, bringing some star power to a company that warned on Monday it could rack up losses of as much as HK$600 million ($77.41 million) for 2014. The star of "Shaolin Soccer" and "Red Cliff" and Huang Youlong, her husband, paid more than HK$3 billion for 9.18 percent of Alibaba Pictures Group Ltd, according to Hong Kong stock exchange filings.Zhao, considered one of the country's most bankable stars, and her husband made the acquisition through holding company Gold Ocean Media Inc in December.Online commerce company Alibaba bought and renamed the film-making company for more than $800 million last year, as it expands into movies and entertainment content. This month, Alibaba Pictures unveiled its first movie project under its new ownership, a romance to be produced by acclaimed Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai.Those moves came as Chinese Internet rivals Tencent Holdings Ltd and Baidu Inc also began to explore forays into movie-making and film content.
Baidu, Inc. (Baidu) is a Chinese-language Internet search provider. Shares of BIDU fell by 1.66% or $-3.87/share to $229.46. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $140.66 and as high as $251.99. On average, 3146850 shares of BIDU exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 2405092.
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