Microsoft in talks with French video site Dailymotion

Microsoft is in talks with Orange about taking a stake in its video site Dailymotion, according to Reuters and French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche. 

The news comes after Stéphane Richard, the CEO of Dailymotion’s parent company Orange, told delegates of the Le Web conference in Paris last month that Orange would likely sign a deal in the coming weeks with “a major player in the digital economy” – with reports tipping Microsoft’s MSN is the most likely candidate.

Earlier this year, Orange was in talks with Yahoo about selling a stake in Dailymotion, though talks broke down after the controversial intervention of French minister Arnaud Montebourg, who reportedly sought to limit the extent of non-French involvement in the company.

Orange subsequently said in July that it will invest €30 million from internal resources in Dailymotion in a bid to boost the video site’s revenues from €37 million last year to more than €100 million by 2016.