Chinese Web portal and mobile phone content provider Sina’s (SINA) deal to acquire the billboard operations in China of Focus Media Holding (FMCN) has collapsed today, almost ten months after it was first announced. The deal had been a thorn in Sina’s side since it was announced on December 22 last year, and has been the subject of intense scrutiny among sell-side analysts in the past week. Focus Media shares rose 20 percent from Monday to Friday last week on expectations that terms would be restructured to allow the sale to go ahead.

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I have mentioned Google’s (GOOG) music-related activities in China a few times during the past two years; and just yesterday this topic seems to have heated up considerably. I think these developments are crucial and need further exploration.

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Sohu.com, one of China’s largest Internet companies, hopes U.S. investors like its hack-and-slash videogames enough to give it as much as $120 million.

The Beijing-based company filed this week for an initial public offering of American depositary shares for its online game subsidiary, Changyou.com, on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The company started its road show presentations for investors in Hong Kong Wednesday, and will issue the price of the deal in the coming week, said company executives.

Changyou.com has developed the popular multiplayer online role-playing games Tian Long Ba Bu and Blade Online. Both feature sword-and-sorcery action, though they draw from China’s kung fu legends.

If it happens, the listing will be the first on Nasdaq since last November, according to Reuters. And it would be the first Chinese company to do an IPO in the U.S. since television advertising company China Mass Media International Advertising Corp. launched in August. This will also make Sohu the first Internet service company in China to have its Web portal service and online game division listed in the stock market.

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On the off chance you haven’t already been inundated with women’s sites, Yahoo has launched their new site geared toward women today. Sticking with the name Shine that was originally rumored, the site follows the same mold as previous entries into this space. Right from the first article you see, you know that Yahoo has gone as far as women’s magazines in researching what women want. The headline article? A treatise on “The 100 Unsexiest Men 2008.”

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