The biggest American IPO of 2009 came from a company that built online worlds of swords and sorcery. Shanda Games raised about $1 billion in September, in a year when few companies dared to go public at all. Its parent, Shanda Interactive, had grown into a Shanghai giant on Legend of Mir II, a fantasy game licensed from Korea's Actoz Soft. Now the games arm would trade on its own, with its own ticker: GAME.

A Game Licensed From Korea

Shanda Interactive launched Legend of Mir II in China in November 2001, under a license from Actoz Soft. It followed with Woool, its own game, in October 2003. The parent went public in May 2004 and then spread into other kinds of entertainment. In July 2008 it moved the game business into a separate company, Shanda Games. The bet was simple: investors would pay more for a pure game maker than for a sprawling holding company.

A $1 Billion Debut, Then a Slide

Shanda Games priced at $12.50 per ADS and listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. The first day went badly. The stock opened at $10.75, about 14 percent under the offer, and it never found firm footing. In April 2015 a Chinese buyer group agreed to take the company private at $7.10 per ADS, a deal worth about $1.9 billion. It closed in November 2015, and Shanda Games left Nasdaq.

Cover: Samurai, Unknown artist. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a samurai warrior (fantasy combat games).