Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE) has acquired eLong, Inc. from Renren Inc. (NYSE:RENN). Expedia bought eLong for approximately $72.4 million ($23 per ADS). Expedia is the largest online travel company and Renren is a leading social networking company in China.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg are in disagreement about getting Facebook into China. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg is “wary about he compromises the company would need to make to do businesses in China,” wrote Bloomberg’s Brad Stone in a profile of Sandberg.

Renren Inc (NYSE:RENN) is the largest social network in China based on pageviews. The company is hoping to raise $743.4 million as they went public today. Renren is offering 53.1 million American depositary receipts for about $12-$14 each. Renren may have a market value of around $5.1 billion. Renren means “everyone” in Chinese. They have over 117 million users. Renren was able to gain traction as Facebook has been banned in China. [BusinessWeek]

In late February I wrote about how Chinese Facebook clone Renren.com has filed for an IPO in the U.S. Some additional details about the IPO has been disclosed now. Renren.com plans on raising up to $573.1 million in the IPO.

Renren.com is a social networking website based in China that looks almost exactly like Facebook. Renren has hired Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse Group, and Deutsche Bank AG to advise them on a $500 million expansion plan through an IPO in the U.S.

[Renren Screenshot]

Oak Pacific Interactive is a Chinese Internet company that has created the “Facebook of China” called Renren and the “Groupon of China” called Nuomi. Oak hired Creduit Suisse Group AG and Deutsche Bank AG to underwrite the IPO. The IPO is expected to take place sometime next year. This year there were 35 Chinese IPOs in the U.S, including Youku and DangDang. [Fast Company]

Chinese social network Xiaonei.com was bought out by Oak Pacific in October 2006 and even raised $430 million in May 2008.  The name Xiaonei translated to “in campus” in the Chinese language.  Essentially this limits people to believe that the social network is only limited to college and university students in China.  The name Renren actually means “everyone” in Chinese.

Apparently the name change will open up the possibilities for “everyone” to join.  Similar to Facebook, the service started only intended for college students but gradually opened up for everyone.  Renren is taking the same approach.

Joe Chen of Oak Pacific decided upon the name change and is rumored to be merging the company’s other social networks under the Renren brand.  The other social networks include MOP and Kaixin.com. Renren.com used to be a hot web property in 1999, but it went bankrupt in 2001.  Then Joe Chen bought the domain name in 2005.  Renren was made into a classifieds website in 2006, but then it was shut down again in 2007.