A 10.1% drop in the price of U.S.-traded shares of Chinese Internet search engine Baidu overnight wiped about $785 million off of the fortune of the company’s billionaire CEO Robin Li.
Baidu said on Tuesday net profit climbed by 36% in the fourth quarter from a year ago, but investors worried about the pace of earnings growth bid the shares down by $10.83 to close at $96.37.
Baidu Chairman Robin Li ranked No. 2 on the 2012 Forbes China Rich List with wealth of $8.1 billion (click here for the full list). After yesterday’s rout, Li’s shares were still worth $6.9 billion. That figure and yesterday’s loss combine shares held by both Li and his wife.
The company competes with Google and Qihoo, among others. Forbes China,the licensed Chinese-language edition of Forbes, ranked Li China's top CEO in a survey last year. (See related story here.)
--Click here for an article about Li’s days as a grad student in the U.S. at the State University of New York at Buffalo
-- Follow me on Twitter @rflannerychina
