Tudou has not had a particularly smooth ride when it comes to the company’s American initial public offering. Most prominently, Tudou CEO Gary Wang became embroiled in a lawsuit with his ex-wife, who was seeking his equity in Quan Toodou Network Science and Technology, a part of the corporate structure that allows Tudou to file for an IPO in the US and the source of almost all of Tudou’s revenue. The company is also faced with a rather overwhelming number of potentially pricey copyright lawsuits.
But the lawsuit with Wang’s ex-wife is settled, according to the company’s most recent filing, and Tudou will forge ahead in their latest IPO attempt. Yesterday the company announced it would be seeking $180 million, up 50 percent from its initial filing last November, via an SEC filing.
The company may well need the extra cash as it faces stiff competition from domestic competitors with more experience, more users, and deeper pockets. Tudou’s chief domestic rival is Youku, who raised over $200 million in their own IPO last year, and who gets heavier traffic than Tudou as of their most recent regulatory filings. As previously mentioned, Tudou also faces significant expenses from copyright litigation, and the SEC filing indicates that Tudou expects it will continue to be exposed to IP lawsuits as they move forward with this latest IPO attempt.
In fact, that Tudou plans to continue with its IPO at all right now is somewhat remarkable given that the rough waters overseas have led several Chinese companies to shy away from initial public offerings this year.
Full disclosure: The author of this post is a former Youku employee and an occasional freelance contractor for Youku.
[Via SFGate, Image Source]
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