its veto over Yahoo Inc.'s attempted
takeover of video sharing website
Dailymotion, even as the move draws
jeers for discouraging much needed
foreign investment.
Yahoo this week abandoned plans to
take a 75 percent stake in
Dailymotion, a deal sought by the
managements of both companies,
after the government blocked it.
In an interview, Arnaud Montebourg,
the minister for industrial renewal,
said Thursday that the government's
ownership stake in Dailymotion's
parent company, France Telecom,
gave it the right to overrule a deal if it
deemed it unfair.
"We are a shareholder in France
Telecom so it's natural that we bring
up" questions of the company's
strategy, Montebourg told The
Associated Press.
Montebourg also rejected accusations
that the deal's collapse signaled France
was pulling in the welcome mat to
foreign investors. Montebourg said
Yahoo was "welcome" as long as it
accepted a 50-50 split with France
Telecom.
France Telecom says it will continue
searching for "a solid strategic partner
outside Europe" and declined to
comment on specifics surrounding the
breakdown of talks with Yahoo or
Montebourg's reaction.
French governments of all political
stripes have a long history of
intervening in the affairs of private
companies in which it owns stakes,
such as Airbus parent EADS, carmaker
Renault, and Air France.
While France's strategic interest in a
website used for sharing funny cat
videos and the like may not be
obvious, Montebourg insisted it was in
the state's interest to keep
Dailymotion from falling into foreign
hands.
"Across the European Union
governments are sensitive to online
content businesses," the minister said
to explain France's interest in keeping
a hand in Dailymotion.
"I told the boss of Yahoo that to
guarantee balance we wanted a 50-50
split" between Yahoo and France
Telecom. "We want to respect the
company's identity and for its
development to be win-win."
Dailymotion declined to comment.
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