In a recent state newspaper, it was announced that the state-owned Chinese partner of MSN, Microsoft's online services group, desires to sell all its holdings in the China-based joint venture.

Shanghai Alliance Investment was behind the formation of the Shanghai MSN Network Communications joint venture with Microsoft in May 2005. Now it is looking for appropriate buyers since last month. Both parties hold 50 per cent of the venture. Shanghai Alliance Investment is run by Jiang Mianheng, a son of former President Jiang Zemin. It is believed that the reason behind closing the partnership is the unclear business model of the venture.

The venture was used to provide online content, email and instant messaging services in Chinese language. However, there is no confirmation on this issue from both the parties. A Beijing-based official with Microsoft's public relations company H-Line Ogilvy was not ready to make any comment on the report.

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