Youku Denies Merger Rumors
Marbridge Consulting, 10/14/08
In a telephone interview with Marbridge Consulting, Liu Dele, senior VP and CFO of online video website Youku, has denied rumors that Youku and rival online video site Tudou are to merge. The rumors, which, citing un-named sources, recently began circulating on several Chinese news sites, have claimed that the two companies were organizing their resources in preparation for a merger.
Liu added that there is a common misconception that consolidation would help the companies reduce costs, but added that since the main driver of cost is bandwidth fees, and bandwidth requirements are a direct function of number of users, cost savings from a merger would not be significant.