China’s homegrown version of Youtube, internet video portal Youku, has named Michael Xu (pictured) as its new CFO, to fill the seat vacated by Dele Liu, who’s been promoted to the post of president. The changes came into effect on July 1.

This is the latest management shuffle after Youku acquired its arch rival Tudou Holdings in March for an all-stock deal totaling $1.1 billion. Youku’s chairman and chief executive Victor Koo took the helm of the merged entity Youku Tudou, while Tudou’s chief executive Gary Wang joined its board of directors.  

Xu, 42, joined Youku last September as its senior vice-president of finance. He counts assorted media and technology enterprises including Lenovo, Alibaba Group and Focus Media as his former employers. Prior to that, he worked at Cisco Systems in the US and as an auditor at PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Beijing office.

Meanwhile, 43-year-old Liu took up the CFO position at Youku in 2006 and became a director in November 2010. He spent ten years working in China’s private equity sector. Previously, he was the vice president of Power Pacific Corporation, a subsidiary of Power Corporation of Canada, from 1996 to 2005. Prior to that, he was an investment manager at Richina Capital Partners.

New York-listed Youku and Tudou, the top two players in China’s fragmented user-generated online video market, were locked in bitter lawsuits over alleged copyright infringement.

Their merger was scrutinized since it may monopolize China’s fledging internet video sector with more than 513 million Internet users in 2011, according to data from China Internet Network Information Center.
                                                                                                                                                    
Prior to their marriage, Youku claimed about 21.8% of market share in China, versus 13.7% captured by Tudou, according to the estimates from Internet research firm Analysys International.  

The merger was structured in an all equity swap because both companies were loss-making. The deal aims to consolidate their online platforms that can help save them about $50 million to $60 million annually in the next year or so, Youku’s vice president Xu Ge told the press when the merger was announced.