Ku6 Media CEO Falls Victim to Whimsical Ways of Shanda’s Chen

It’s a relatively quiet news day here in China this Monday, but one of the few stories making headlines is the abrupt departure of CEO and founder Li Shanyou, also known as Kevin Li, from his video sharing site Ku6 Media  (Nasdaq: KUTV) as the result of differing views with its major shareholder Shanda Interactive (Nasdaq: SNDA) chief Chen Tianqiao. (English press release; Chinese report) Now I’ll be the first to admit I know very little about KU6 and Li, beyond the fact that it’s a small company that used too be called Hurray Holdings. But I do know a bit about Chen and what a difficult and headstrong person he can be to work for or with. His past victims have included Tang Jun, another self-confident wonk in China’s tech world, and I have no doubt there have been many others. What this means for Ku6 is unclear, though I doubt it can be good. What it does reflect, however, is that Shanda’s Chen remains a difficult person with a big vision he is happy to articulate but doesn’t seem able to execute. Look for more waves for Shanda down the road as long as Chen is in charge, which seems likely to be a long while to come.

Bottom line: Ku6’s Li Shanyou is another victim in Chen Tianqiao’s hubris-filled wake, boding poorly for Chen’s Shanda flagship as he tries to build it into a diversified media powerhouse.