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Sohu gaming arm Changyou.com readies NASDAQ IPO

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-18 14:49

Chinese online gaming firm Changyou.com Ltd will be spun-off by mainland Internet portal Sohu.com in a NASDAQ IPO to raise up to $120 million, according to a term sheet, venturing into a market for new offerings that has been all-but-shut for months.

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Changyou.com, which developed the popular multiplayer online role-playing game Tian Long Ba Bu and also operates the game Blade Online under licence, will kick off its investor marketing roadshow in Hong Kong on Thursday and will price the deal on April 1, a person familiar with the matter said.

The listing would be the first on NASDAQ since November 2008.

The initial public offering (IPO) consists of 7.5 million American Depositary Shares -- half of them new, half of them existing shares to be sold by Sohu.com -- to be priced at $14-$16 each in a deal handled by Credit Suisse and Merrill Lynch.

A 15 percent overallotment option would lift the size of the deal to $138 million, Sohu.com said in a statement.

Changyou.com, which will list under the symbol CYOU would be the first Chinese company in more than a year to list on NASDAQ. The last to do so was online education and test preparation firm ATA Inc, which raised $46.3 million in January 2008.

ATA's shares last traded at $4.69 each, about half their offer price of $9.50.

The last company of any nationality to list on NASDAQ was online college operator Grand Canyon Education Inc, which raised $145 million in November. Security firm O'Gara Group shelved plans for a NASDAQ listing in mid-February.

On Tuesday, Plains All American Pipeline LP managed to raise $184.5 million when it priced an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange.

After Changyou.com lists, it will be 70.7 percent owned by Sohu.com, 14.6 percent by Wang Tao and 14.6 percent by the public, the source said.