DAILYMOTION: TOWARDS AN INVESTMENT OF MICROSOFT?

The boss of the operator Orange Stéphane Richard said , Wednesday, Dec. 11 , that his group would announce " within weeks " an agreement with a partner to develop its subsidiary Dailymotion in the U.S. market during the exhibition dedicated to start- ups LeWeb .

There is a great probability that we reach an agreement with a partner in the U.S. market in the coming weeks . It is a major player in the digital economy , "said Stéphane Richard .

Selling Dailymotion , platform online video, the American giant Yahoo had failed in the spring. Yahoo wanted to buy in Orange 75 % stake in Dailymotion , with an option for up to 100% . But the state , which still holds 27 % stake in France Télécom , would not go beyond 50%.

Our goal has never been to sell or Dailymotion make money with Dailymotion , but finding strategic partners to help it grow , "said Stéphane Richard in a conference room at LeWeb .

" Dailymotion needs to accelerate its growth and its audience , it needs more resources , particularly in the U.S. market . There is a large gap between Dailymotion and YouTube ," number one site for online video , held by Google, he added.

Microsoft soon minority shareholder ?

"The name of Microsoft flows emphatically from yesterday ," says " Les Echos " . "This is a very likely path ," confirms a daily " expert dossier " . CEO of the American group , Steve Ballmer ( on leave) , met Stéphane Richard in November . The two actors are currently working on integrating videos on Dailymotion Microsoft sites . This allows the U.S. to opt for an alternative to YouTube service owned by Google.

Microsoft could benefit from this collaboration to take a minority stake in Dailymotion . Stéphane Richard has also specified LeWeb that the agreement will be sealed a business partner Dailymotion , rigor and a minority shareholder , " but not necessarily " .

Orange boss also indicated that discussions were underway to find another partner , " a regional operator" Dailymotion to the Asian market .

Dailymotion has since received some 30 million investment for its development from its parent as a result of the failure of this recovery. The platform focuses 85% of its audience abroad and the United States is its biggest market . More than 2.5 billion videos are viewed per month on the site.