Why Tudou's Shares Jumped

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of Chinese online video company Tudou Holdings (NAS: TUDO) were notching big gains today, rising as much as 12% in intraday trading after the company reported first-quarter results.

So what: For the quarter that ended in March, the company delivered scorching 77% revenue growth. The $22.3 million tally topped both management's guidance as well as the average estimate from Wall Street. On the bottom line, the company is still in the red, but its $0.75-per-share loss was narrower than the $0.88 that analysts thought the company would report.

Of course, though investors tend to put a lot of weight on whether or not a company tops Wall Street estimates, it's worth noting that there are only two analysts currently following Tudou.

Now what: In March, Tudou and competitor Youku (NYS: YOKU) announced that they're planning to merge in a transaction that will leave Tudou shareholders with 29% control of the combined company.

The appeal of investing in Tudou (or the combined Youku Tudou) is pretty obvious: The company is based in huge, rapidly growing China and it's dealing in online video. The drawbacks, meanwhile, are likewise obvious: It's based in opaque China and it's unprofitable.

The company's top-line growth looked great in the first quarter and its loss improved versus last year. However, the overall package here -- an unprofitable, China-based, advertising-dependent online-video platform -- holds little appeal for this Fool.

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