Phone operator France Telecom has acquired the remaining majority stake in Dailymotion, a France-based video-sharing website, to provide an exit for its venture capital backers but said it plans to sell part of its ownership to third parties.
In January 2011, France Telecom bought a 49% stake in Dailymotion for €58.8m ($80.5m) with an option to acquire the rest for €61m this year.
Investors in Dailymotion since its launch in 2005 had included venture capital firms Atlas Ventures, Advent Ventures, IDInvest Partners and Partech and France’s sovereign wealth fund FSI. Having provided $68.5m over this period, the investors sold a portion of their shares to France Telecom then and the remaining stake now.
France Telecom’s Orange subsidiary said: “It is not our ambition or our role to remain a 100% stakeholder of Dailymotion and we are currently working to find the right partner(s). Obviously we cannot comment on this until…
