Microsoft sells MSN China portal to Xi Tech

Microsoft has sold its MSN China portal to Xi Chuang Technology Co Ltd, a technology product and development company co-founded in 2015 by MSN China's former general manager Liu "Anderson" Zhenyu.

In the announcement Monday, Microsoft stated that the acquisition by Xi Chuang Technology will allow it "to be more flexible and agile in meeting the local domestic market needs, and to continue creating value for ... respective shareholders and employees".

No financial details on the deal were released, but "the two sides will continue to work closely together", Chinese business journal Caixin reported.

Microsoft had originally announced in May that the MSN China portal would close.

MSN China had found some success, and last year made patent and licensing deals with smartphone-maker Xiaomi, as well as a deal allowing baidu.com to become the default browser for Chinese customers of Microsoft products.

However, according to Caixin Online, a mood of tougher regulations in China toward Western companies has also made it more difficult for them to operate there. The last two years have seen Chinese government probes of MSN China for alleged antitrust and tax evasion actions.

MSN China, which began operating in China in 2010, also faced an uphill battle against popular Chinese web portals, such as baidu.com or sina.com.cn. MSN's web searches also needed to be redirected or allocated to local browsers, like Google and Yahoo before it.