This is not a rumor now. Yes, Blizzard is changing their publisher of World of Warcraft in China now.
NetEase and Blizzard today announced that the operation of WoW in China will be transfered to NetEase after the license's expiring in this June. And it is a 3-year service agreement.
Last August, Netease announced that it would take over the operation of other Blizzard games in China including Warcraft III, Starcraft II and Battle Net.
"We are glad to cooperate with Blizzard Entertainment by publishing World of Warcraft, after our previous cooperation of arcraft III, Starcraft II and Battle Net." Said William Ding, CEO of NetEase, "I believe that it will be the best gaming experience for you players when we combine world class development capabilities from Blizzard and the online games operation from NetEase."
NetEase has launched its interim official website http://wow.163.com/ for World of Warcraft. We'll continue to give attention to this event.