Orange reportedly acquires 100 % of Dailymotion (for now)

According to Journal du Net, French telecom Orange just bought the 51 % of the Dailymotion shares that it didn’t own yet. The news hasn’t been confirmed on Orange’s website yet.

In 2011, Orange bought 49 % of Dailymotion for € 66 million, but it also negotiated an option to buy the rest of the 51 % shares. It has now apparently lifted that option, which would expire this spring.

The terms of the option were that the value of the 51 % of Dailymotion couldn’t exceed € 72 million, reports JDN. It says that the valuation for Dailymotion is currently around € 100 million (which would also mean that Orange lost about € 16 million on its Dailymotion investment).

Dailymotion, previously a free online video platform, recently started premium services to become less dependent on advertising revenue.

Orange is probably not planning on staying 100 % owner of Dailymotion. According to 01net, Orange is looking for a US partner to strengthen Dailymotion’s position globally.

via JDN Média.

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Raf Weverbergh

Editor of whiteboard. Raf Weverbergh was a magazine journalist at Humo whose work appeared in magazines like Rolling Stone, Playboy, Mail on Sunday, Publico and South China Morning post before starting Whiteboard in 2012. He profiles entrepreneurs and businesses and loves to chat on Twitter, Linkedin or Skype (rafweverbergh).