China Online Gaming Company Sets IPO

Filed in archive Internet on October 24, 2007

Giant Interactive, the maker of the Zhengtu (one of China's most popular online games) has set the terms of its upcoming NYSE initial public offering.

The share price will be between $12 and $14 per share, according to the China Post. Giant Interactive expects to offer about 57 million shares.

Giant Interactive's Zhengtu game is a MMORPG, or massively multiplayer online role play game. Zhengtu has about 1.3 million players. Giant expects to make around $650 million from the IPO.

Merrill Lynch and UBS AG are underwriting the IPO, along with JP Morgan Securities, cibc world markets, Piper Jaffray and Susquehanna Financial Group LLLP.

Zhengtu's popularity became almost comic recently when Pacific Epoch reported that a divorcing couple in Shandong was fighting over 10 joint game accounts with Zhengtu. The husband wanted the game accounts in return for relinquishing claims to their new apartment; the wife wanted to split the apartment and the game accounts equally. I never actually heard how the court ruled...