French minister: Orange can seek foreign partners for Dailymotion

French digital economy minister Fleur Pellerin has said France Telecom-Orange is free to pursue negotiations to find an investor in its online video portal Dailymotion and that there is no need for the site to remain under exclusive French control, although its technology and employees had to remain based in France. 

Pellerin’s intervention follows a much-criticised move by productivity minister Arnaud Montebourg to limit the extent of foreign ownership of Dailymotion after talks between Orange and Yahoo! that could have seen the latter take a majority stake. Economy minister Pierre Moscovici later distanced himself from Montebourg’s intervention.