Google is '99.9%' sure to close its China site, report says
Flowers, fruits and a bottle of liquor, items associated with a traditional Chinese funeral rituals, are placed on Google's logo outside the company's China headquarters in Beijing, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010. I Blue characters at right are a Chinese word for 'Google.' (AP Photo)
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The Financial Times reported Saturday that Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) is "99.9 percent" sure to close its search engine in China after negotiations over censorship stalled.
The newspaper cited an unnamed source familiar with the company's thinking when it reported Saturday that Google has drawn up plans to shutter Google.cn. The newspaper did not say when the company would shut the site.
"Google to shut China search engine," The FT's headline declared.
A Google spokesman declined to comment on the report.
However, Google may not pull all its business out of China.
According to the newspaper, Google wants to keep other operations in China but company officials fear a "backlash" from Chinese officials that might make continuing a presence there "almost impossible."
The latest developments come a day after China's top Internet regulator reiterated that Google must obey its laws or "pay the consequences." (See LTW coverage here.)
Google announced in January that it would stop complying with China's censorship rules after it discovered hackers had fooled human-rights activists into exposing their e-mail accounts.
Copyright 2012 WRAL Tech Wire. All rights reserved.
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