China's Internet search firm Baidu.com said Sunday that its chief financial officer, Shawn Wang, died in an accident while on vacation in China.
 
Wang, who joined Baidu in 2004 and helped the company successfully list on the Nasdaq stock market in 2005, died on Dec.27 during a Christmas-New Year holiday. Company officials declined to give further details.

The company said it plans to replace him but also gave no further details.

"Under Wang's leadership, this year Baidu became one of the four biggest firms in the U.S. by stock transaction volume and the first Chinese company to join the Nasdaq 100 index," Baidu chairman and CEO Robin Li said in an e-mail to employees.

"Besides [his contribution to] financial affairs, he also led the company's legal and human resources departments to fruitful achievements," Li said.

Baidu had a 60.5-percent share of China's search engine market in the third quarter, according to Beijing-based research firm Analysys International.

The company's third-quarter profits rose 113.2 percent year-on-year to 24.2 million U.S. dollars on strong traffic growth. It is considering a listing in Hong Kong.

(Xinhua News Agency December 31, 2007)