Baidu profit weighed down by offline mobile services push

(Reuters) – Baidu Inc's quarterly profit missed analysts' estimates as China's biggest Internet search company spent heavily to diversify away from its core search advertising business, which is becoming less profitable and more competitive.

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Canadian venture capital, private equity deals surge in 2015

By Euan Rocha TORONTO (Reuters) – Deal-making activity in Canada’s venture capital and private equity arena surged in the first half of 2015, driven by a spate of financings in the tech start-up space and large investments in energy assets, data from Thomson Reuters showed on Monday. The data indicates there was C$636 million ($488.48 million) in venture capital invested in 143 deals in the second quarter, a sum that was 15 percent higher than that invested by VC firms in the first quarter. This propelled VC investments in the first half of this year to C$1.19 billion, a 33 percent increase from the first half of last year and the strongest first half for VC funding in Canada since 2002.

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