Online Game Developer Shanda Gets $2.3 Billion Buy-Out

Shareholders in big Chinese online game developer Shanda Interactive Entertainment (NSDQ:SNDA) have voted in favour of a proposal by which its CEO and his family will take over the company.

Tianqiao Chen’s offer of $41.35 per ADS share values the company at about $2.3 billion and will remove it from the Nasdaq, where it went public back in 2004.

Shanda games include the free-to-play multiplayer online game World Zero.

China’s online games market is worth 55.7 billion yuan ($8.8 billion) in 2012 and will reach 82.6 billion ($13.1 billion) yuan in 2015 on annual growth of 25 percent, according to a forecast out this week from Analysys International, which noted: “The impetus for the market comes from the economic development in 2nd and 3rd tier cities, the updating of bandwidth and operators’ changes in game operation.”

Tencent leads the market, with Shanda in second place. Shanda has also this week debuted its own version of Android, ahead of what is expected to be the launch of its own mobile phone.

Shanda’s buy-out is also being made by the CEO’s wife Qianqian Luo and brother Danian Chen.

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