A booth of China Dangdang Inc at an e-commerce expo in Nanjing, Jiangsu province. [Photo/China Daily]

SHANGHAI - Two Chinese firms have launched a joint bid to buy Chinese e-commerce company Dangdang.

Imeigu.com, a Beijing-based information provider on US stock markets, and the conglomerate China Huaxi Group announced on Thursday night that they had offered to buy New York-listed Dangdang at $8.8 per share, which was 12.6 percent higher than the price set by Dangdang's internal acquisition team.

The investors have hired international lawyers O'Melveny & Myers LLP to consult on the acquisition.

Going public in 2010, Dangdang.com used to dominate online book sales. However, the business has been under threat from Amazon China as well domestic giants such as Alibaba and JD.com.

Dangdang has been trying to turn itself into a broader online retailer, focusing more on fashion and household items in recent years.

China Huaxi Group owns 145 firms. With total assets of 48.2 billion yuan ($7.5 billion), its listed arm Huaxi Holdings made outbound investments of 4.2 billion yuan in 2014.