Vivendi on Tuesday announced that it has made an offer to Orange regarding its video sharing site Dailymotion, but it might not be the only company interested in the asset.
The confirmation came in a one-line statement on the company’s Website following media reports to that effect. Vivendi did not provide details of the scope or value of its offer.
However, Le Monde on Monday reported that Vivendi has tabled a €250 million bid for almost all of Dailymotion.
German media group Axel Springer has also made an offer, according to a separate report from Les Echos. The paper did not speculate on the value of the German offer, but said it sees Vivendi’s bid as being "much more interesting than that of Axel Springer, from a financial point of view as well as at an industrial level."
The paper said Orange’s board will meet on Tuesday to discuss the two offers.
Hong Kong’s PCCW is now out of the running though.
The telco was linked with Dailymotion last month but has reportedly pulled out of talks with Orange on the grounds that the French firm is keen to secure a European partner for the video unit.
Speaking at a company event in Paris in March, Orange CEO Stephane Richard admitted that the company is looking for a partner for Dailymotion, but dismissed reports that talks with PCCW were exclusive.
Although based in France, Dailymotion is an international company because the nature of the Internet makes it so, Richard said. Thus he sees the company’s future development being on a global stage.
However, Dailymotion remains significantly smaller than its main rival, Google-owned YouTube.
Dailymotion claims to attract 128 million monthly unique visitors, watching more than 2.5 billion videos. YouTube, meanwhile, has more than 1 billion users, generating "billions of views" per day.
