Shareholders Approve: Youku and Tudou Sitting in a Tree, M-E-R-G-I-N-G

Tudou’s Gary Wang (left) and Youku’s Victor Koo, pictured today after shareholders of both companies approved the proposed merger.

China’s biggest-ever tech deal was revealed back in March of this year when Youku (NYSE:YOKU) and Tudou (NASDAQ:TUDO) shocked the nation’s netizens, proposing that the two largest video-streaming sites should merge. And now that’s closer than ever to being finalized after shareholders of both Youku and Tudou have agreed to the terms of the deal.

It’s a major step forward, but there’s still some way to go yet. So long as regulators don’t intervene, the careful legal process will stretch on for the rest of the year.

Aside from the new photo of Tudou’s Gary Wang (left) and Youku’s Victor Koo, nothing much changes immediately in the ongoing merger, which will ultimately form a new company called Youku Tudou Inc. Unless they think of a better name. The two brands and sites, Youku.com and Tudou.com, will go on largely unchanged even after the merger is complete. We believe that a thorough legal laundry list is the next thing to plough through, then Tudou will be very close to being de-listed from NASDAQ and merged into the $YOKU ticker.