According to information published by an online regulatory approval platform for investment project under China's National Development and Reform Commission, the privatization project of Qihoo 360 has been approved by National Development and Reform Commission and it is now up for public comment.

This project was approved on April 19, 2016 and its legal entity is Tianjin Qixin Tongda Technology Company Limited.

Tianjin Qixin Tongda was founded on November 16, 2015, with registered capital of CNY10 million. Its corporate representative is Zhou Hongyi, chairman and CEO of Qihoo 360. The company's businesses cover scientific research and technical service; information transmission, software, and information technology service; business service; and wholesale and retail.

Prior to this, Qihoo 360 held an extraordinary general meeting at its group headquarters and implemented a vote on the privatization agreement. Its shareholders approved the agreement.

On December 18, 2015, Qihoo 360 announced that the company reached a final privatization agreement with a buyer group, who would acquire Qihoo 360 for about USD9.3 billion in cash. Members of this buyer group include Citic Guoan, Golden Brick Road Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Taikang Life Insurance, Ping An Insurance, Sunshine Insurance, New China Capital, Huatai Ruilian, and Huasheng Capital.

As a publicly-listed Chinese company in the United States, Qihoo 360 has faced the pressures of being a public company. Transparency dogged the company, which also has a security software component, and ultimately the company saw the U.S. public markets as incompatible with how the company wanted to conduct business.