Vivendi enters talks to buy 80% of Dailymotion

Vivendi has entered exclusive talks with Orange to buy 80 per cent of the French telecoms operator's Dailymotion video-sharing website for €217 million. A deal, which would value the video website at €265million, would signal an end to Orange's long search for a strategic partner to help develop Dailymotion internationally.

The transaction would also provide the first clues as to Vivendi’s vision as a pure content and media company.

Vivendi chairman Vincent Bolloré, who is under pressure to spend his group’s huge cash pile, said that acquiring Dailymotion would “provide the group with added reach in the diffusion of high-quality musical and audiovisual content across the world”.

Stéphane Richard, Orange’s chairman and chief executive, said that bringing Vivendi in as a majority shareholder would enable Dailymotion “to accelerate its growth internationally and to enhance its content offer”.

The two groups announced the all-French talks after Hong Kong-based PCCW said on Monday that it had cut off talks over Dailymotion. The PCCW decision came after the French government, which is Orange’s biggest shareholder, with a 25 per cent stake, made it clear that it wanted the telecoms group to seek a European partner.

Dailymotion is one of the largest rivals to Google's YouTube, and Vimeo.

– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2015