Tudou Nears IPO Despite Strong Headwind 土豆网逆流而动决意上市

By newsdoug on July 12, 2011

Online video sharing site Tudou seems determined to make its long-delayed IPO regardless of negative market sentiment, filing new documents for its Nasdaq offering that show it is facing a growing pile of copyright infringement lawsuits. I suspect that Tudou founder and CEO Gary Wang is rushing to market despite the poor timing as he attempts to wrap up a messy divorce that has already delayed the IPO of his money-losing company by more than half a year. The amended IPO documents contain details of Wang’s divorce settlement (English article), and also appear to contain information about huge pile of copyright infringement lawsuits hiis company is facing — no doubt from plaintiffs seeking to grab some of the money from the upcoming offering. According to one Chinese media report citing a Tudou disclosure, the company has faced 587 lawsuits Tudou IPO set to flop since its founding, including 192 that have yet to be resolved (Chinese article) Luckily for Tudou, China’s weak copyright laws don’t penalize infringers too much, but the fact that Tudou has lost the vast majority of these lawsuits means it may eventually have to stop allowing pirated material onto its site that undoubtedly accounts for much of its traffic. Money-losing rival Youku (NYSE: YOKU) is facing a similar issues, and recently signed a landmark deal to offer legitimate Warner Bros (NYSE: TWX) movies and TV shows to its premium customers as it moves to wean itself from pirated material. (previous post) Tudou appears to be further behind in the drive to acquire legitimate material and eliminate pirated content, which will no doubt hurt its growth prospects in the near term. That issue, combined with recent weak sentiment toward US-listed China stocks due to credibility issues, are likely to make Tudou’s offering a dud when it finally comes in the weeks ahead.

Bottom line: Tudou’s upcoming IPO looks set to be a flop, coming into a weak market as the money-losing company grapples with piracy issues.

不顾低迷的市场人气，中国在线视频分享网站——土豆网似乎决意要将其拖延已久的首次公开募股（IPO）进行到底。土豆网已提交新文件，为在美国纳斯达克市场上市作准备，尽管文件显示该网站正面临越来越多的版权官司。我猜想，土豆网创始人兼CEO王微正急於让公司上市，尽管此时并不是一个好时机。王微正试图了结自己的离婚案，因此事已让这家亏损企业的上市时间推迟了半年多。修改後的IPO申请文件涵盖了王微的离婚财产处理细节，也似乎涉及到土豆网面临的大量版权官司。中国媒体援引土豆网披露的信息说，自公司创建以来，土豆网遭遇了587例诉讼案，其中192起仍悬而未决。幸运的是，中国宽松的版权法律不会严惩违规者，但土豆网在多数诉讼案中败北的事实意味着，它或许最终要禁止盗版内容在其网站中出现。土豆网的竞争对手——优酷网<YOKU.N>也面临着类似问题。优酷网刚刚签署了一份具有里程碑意义的协议，以向其优质客户提供华纳兄弟<TWX.N> 的电影和电视节目，作为其逐渐剥离盗版内容的一个举措。在获取正版视频、消除盗版内容方面，土豆网似乎落後了一步，这无疑会在短期内损害其业绩增长前景。该问题以及近期在美上市中国企业信誉问题引发的薄弱人气，均可能使土豆网上市前景一片悲观。

一句话：土豆网的上市前景一片悲观，因这家亏损企业既要处理盗版问题，又要在一个糟糕的时机上市。

Enjoy this blog? Please spread the word :)