Recruiting site Monster bought the remaining 55% of ChinaHR for $174 million in cash Wednesday.

The U.S. company first took a 40% stake in ChinaHR in 2005 for $50 million, and took another 5% in January 2006. Monster first announced its intention to buy the remainder of the company in February, but did not complete the deal until this week, as ChinaHR pondered either an initial public offering (IPO) or a full merger with Monster.

Monster Greater China's Executive Vice President, Edward Lo, will take over as interim CEO of ChinaHR, which has offices in 12 Chinese cities. The company now operates 10 sites in Asia, including China and Hong Kong.

In its most recent market assessment, Beijing-based research firm Analysys International valued the China online recruitment market at 216 million yuan ($31 million) for the first quarter of 2007. It cited ChinaHR rival, Nasdaq-listed 51job.com as the market leader with 30%, with ChinaHR in second place with 26%. Zhaopin.com, which raised $110 million in pre-IPO funding in July, trailed in third place with 15%.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.