China’s Shanda Buys American Game Company, Appoints New Subsidiary COO

Two of Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited’s subsidiaries have been busy this week doing an acquisition and hiring a new executive, respectively.

Shanda Games today announced plans to buy U.S.-based Mochi Media in a deal worth as much as USD80 million. This is the company’s second acquisition this year, as it last week announced plans to acquire Shanghai-based game developer Goldcool Games.

Shanda Online Holdings Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited, also announced the appointment of Xu Chaojun as its chief operating officer. Prior to joining Shanda Online, Xu served as vice president of Oak Pacific Interactive from 2006 to 2009 and was in charge of the social networking site Xiaonei.com, now named Renren.com. Xu was a co-founder of Chinaren.com and subsequently served in various positions including technology director at Sohu.com from 2000 to 2005 after it acquired Chinaren.com in 2000.