Google's Baidu Sale

Shares of Baidu(BIDU Quote) slumped after Google(GOOG Quote) sold its 2.6% stake in the Chinese search engine.

Baidu fell $4.86, or 5.8%, to $79.54 after Bloomberg and CNBC reported the sale. A Google spokesman and a U.S.-based Baidu representative couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

Google, which released a censored version of its service in China earlier this year, purchased a stake in Baidu in June 2004, before its public offering, according to Bloomberg. The news service estimates Google's Baidu stake to be worth more than $63 million based on yesterday's closing price.

The soaring demand for the Web in China is continuing to attract both U.S. companies and Internet investors. In fact, shares of Baidu have jumped 27% this year, outperforming U.S. Net titans including Google, Yahoo!(YHOO Quote) and eBay, which have all declined.

Shares of Google fell $1.63 to $400.50.