Business news for Mon, 17 Dec 2007 & with word existing. 2 news.

BAIDU.COM has teamed up with Huawei Technologies and Intel to strengthen its servers and search technologies to expand its lead in the domestic market over rivals including Google, Nasdaq-listed Baidu said yesterday. Baidu announced it will build a joint lab with Huawei to explore "next-generation" online search and test 3G-related mobile phone services, just one month after Google launched mobile search services in China. "Baidu has to break the bottleneck of the server capacity as the demand for search surges in China," William Chang, Baidu's chief scientist, said. "Baidu has to triple its existing capacity to reach the global level of services." In the third quarter, China overtook the United States to become the world's largest search traffic, with 10 billion hits per month, Baidu said. Baidu has launched a series of new services, such as an Olympics channel, game channel, Baidu TV and online music streaming (partnered with Rock Music Group).

SOUTH Korea's largest retailer Lotte Shopping Co plans to acquire a stake in a Chinese discount-store chain to expand its presence on the Chinese mainland, the Seoul-listed company said in a regulatory filing yesterday. Lotte agreed to buy a 49-percent stake in CTA Makro, which now operates five discount stores in Beijing and two in Tianjin, from SHV Holdings NV for 57.6 million euros (US$82.90 million). The Netherlands-based SHV Holdings IV now operates CTA Makro with a 49-percent stake while China Trade Association Property Corp Ltd owns 51 percent. Lotte also plans to open another outlet in Beijing next year, according to the statement. However, the acquisition plan is still awaiting China's regulatory approval. Shanghai Daily's call to CTA Makro yesterday was not answered. The retailer, which controls more than 40 percent of South Korea's department store market and 14 percent of discount stores, is preparing to open new outlets through land purchases and buying existing