China's Subaye plummets after CFO resigns

March 15 (Reuters) - Shares of China's Subaye Inc plunged 41 percent to a two-and-half-year low on Tuesday, a day after the cloud computing company said its chief financial officer resigned.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said James Crane, who had served as CFO since October 2007, resigned to pursue other professional interests.

Subaye, which offers cloud services and online video marketing to small and medium-sized businesses, named company President Alan Lun as its CFO.

Before joining Subaye, Crane had founded J. Crane & Co P.C., a professional services firm, prior to which he worked as an external auditor.

J. Crane & Co's registration as a public accounting firm was permanently revoked after it failed to cooperate on an inspection by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB).

According to a PCAOB document dated Jan. 11, Crane also failed to file an annual report and pay an annual fee.

The PCAOB is a private sector body created under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to oversee the auditors of public companies.

The company, which was known as MyStarU.com till late 2009, granted J. Crane & Co 2.25 million shares on Oct 11, 2009, for three years of consulting services, according to a filing dated Oct. 20, 2009.

The stock hit a lifetime high of $27 on Oct 20, 2009.

Shares of the company were down 29 percent at $4.20 in morning trade on Nasdaq, after touching a low of $3.49 earlier. More than 2.7 million shares changed hands by 10:15 ET. That is over 5 times their normal volumes. (Reporting by Sayantani Ghosh; Editing by Vyas Mohan) Keywords: SUBAYE/SHARES ([e-mail]; within U.S. [phone]; outside U.S. [phone]; Reuters Messaging: [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.