(Yicai Global) Dec. 24 -- Sina Corp., the first Nasdaq-listed Chinese Internet company, announced yesterday that its board of shareholders had approved a privatization plan proposed by a major shareholder. The firm is expected to complete the privatization and exit the United States market in the first quarter of next year.

According to Sina’s announcement, the Beijing-based company received objections from certain shareholders, who together hold more than 10 percent stake, before the vote at the extraordinary shareholders’ meeting yesterday. The firm will issue authorization notices to the opposing shareholders, in accordance with the Cayman Islands’ companies law, and the parent company will have the right to cancel the merger if shareholders objecting to the plan ultimately still have more than 10 percent stake.

Sina went public on Nasdaq in 2000 and received a privatization offer for USD41 per share from New Wave MMXV controlled by its founder and chief executive Cao Guowei in July.

Sina’s stock price was USD36.67 before the firm received the offer, with the offer price around 11.8 percent higher. Shares of Sina [NASDAQ: SINA] rose 1.67 percent to USD43.2 as of the US stock market closing yesterday, higher than the offer price.

New Wave held a 12.2 percent stake and some preferred stocks in Sina as of the end of March with 58 percent voting rights, public data show. Cao directly and indirectly holds 13.5 percent stake with 58.6 percent voting rights.

Formed in December 1998, Sina owns the portal website Sina.com, the Sina Mobile app and social media platform Weibo. Since its listing, the firm has been relying heavily on Weibo for its operating revenue, especially Weibo’s advertising business. Weibo contributed 76 percent of Sina’s total revenue in the second quarter, per its unaudited second-quarter financial report.

Sina’s shares hit a record high of USD127.6 in April 2011 on news that the number of registered Weibo users had exceeded 100 million, raising its market value to over USD8 billion.

Today, Sina’s market value is less than USD2.6 billion, while Weibo, which went public in 2014, has a market capitalization of USD10.3 billion. So Sina holds over USD4 billion of Weibo’s market value based on its 44.9 percent stake in the microblogging site.

Editor: Peter Thomas