Yahoo in talks to buy controlling stake in online video website Dailymotion: report
20 Mar 2013
Yahoo Inc is in talks to acquire a controlling stake in French website Dailymotion, one of the world's most popular online video websites, The Wall Street Journal yesterday reported, citing people familiar with the talks.
In what would be Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's largest deal since taking over in July last year, Yahoo could buy upto 75 per cent of Dailymotion in a deal that could value the world's second largest video-sharing website at around $300 million.
Paris-based Dailymotion, owned by France Telecom, is the 12th-largest video website in the world by unique users, according to research firm comScore Inc.
The site, which like YouTube has both user-uploaded videos, was part acquired by France Telecom in 2011, and fully this year, for a total of around $165 million.
As of December, Dailymotion was pulling in 116 million unique monthly visitors and 2.5 billion monthly views, making it the world's second most popular video portal behind YouTube.
Although the company does not reveal its annual financial results, analysts say that Dailymotion has been profitable since 2010 and has seen a 55 per cent profit growth in 2012.