Google to have February China Crisis?

Credit Suisse said in an analyst note that they expect that Google's Chinese operation may close next month in the wake of them refusing to censor search results in the country after the hacking of Gmail accounts originating in China ... although they are also probing claims of an inside job.

In their note they say:

"Post Google’s China shut down, China government is likely to frequently block the Google.com Web site.

Without stable Web site access, Google will likely lose traffic and even revenue."

Baidu and Alibaba are likely to benefit from the closure, although the latter is less than happy at their search partner Yahoo! backing Google's stance.

Google have said they have not yet decided to leave the country and will open talks with the Chines government.