(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.)By Robyn MakHONG KONG, Feb 29 (Reuters Breakingviews) - China’s $36 bln search-engine operator lags leaders like Microsoft but is making progress on its answer to ChatGPT. Yet the stock plunged 8% despite decent results and it now trades below 10 times forward earnings. Blame a rout in Chinese equities and overly high expectations.Full view will be published shortly.<h3 id="pjknjq1mq">CONTEXT NEWS</h3>Chinese search-engine operator Baidu on Feb. 28 reported revenue of 34.9 billion yuan ($4.9 billion) in the three months to Dec. 31, an increase of 6% year-on-year. Net income fell 48% to 2.6 billion yuan due to a one-off 3 billion yuan loss relating to the changes to the terms of the company’s preferred stock.Baidu’s New York shares closed down 8% at $103.31 on Feb. 28.(Editing by Antony Currie and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)

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Chinese search-engine operator Baidu reported an increase in revenue but a decrease in net income due to changes in the terms of its preferred stock. The stock price plunged 8% and now trades below 10 times forward earnings.

BREAKINGVIEWS-Baidu may be the world's most unloved AI stock