Chinese online giant Baidu has disclosed in a filing that it agreed to sell its mobile gaming business for $173 million in January, as spotted by Seeking Alpha.

Baidu Mobile Game was a subsidiary of Baidu that focused on publishing licensed mobile games through its own platform.

But on January 13th 2017, Baidu signed a deal with two unnamed companies to offload the division in an all-cash deal.

Cut-price

"The business of Baidu Mobile Game will be disposed in 2017 as we entered into an equity transfer agreement with a third-party purchaser in January 2017," reads the statement from Baidu.

The Baidu Mobile Game team was formerly known as 91 Wireless, acquired in August 2013 for $1.85 billion, so this $173 million sale represents something of a cut-price deal.

Whether this represents an exit from the mobile games space for Baidu, or simply clearing the decks for something new, remains to be seen.