Yahoo! scuppered! in! Dailymotion! buyout! attempt! Yahoo! has had to give up its attempt to take a controlling stake in French video startup Dailymotion after the government intervened, according to media reports. The Purple Palace was forced to abandon its pursuit of a 75 per cent stake in the online video site when French industry minister Arnaud Montebourg, part of the …
a government not letting its home grown sell out to the rest. If the UK touch a long term approach, like the Germans, maybe we wouldn't be up shit street with out a paddle (because we sold the paddle to make a quick buck) and now can only buy paddles for 200x the original value. Like the tilting trains and a number of other things no doubt!
Realistically, there is nothing legally that the French government can do about it. It is bluster from the government really - private companies are legally allowed to be bought and sold as their owners wish, and if a government tries to step in, they have a limited scope with which to object such as it damaging competition, or for national security. Otherwise the WTO can get involved...
You seem to severely underestimate the power of a government. Regulators can easily find any number of reasons for blocking such a deal. Appealing is difficult; complaining to the WTO would take years, and is not a viable strategy.
Personally, I think the deal would have made sense. Competing with YouTube requires a heavy infrastructure, and Yahoo certainly has the means and the required knowledge.
I would add that I have never noticed Arnaud Montebourg say anything intelligent. Every time I hear about him, it is some chauvinistic populist statement about French exceptionalism.
Can't help noticing on the Reg that whenever the American government steps in to regulate private business selling assets offshore, commentards run shrieking to the hills about American protectionism, yet when someone else does it to the Americans the tone seems to be 'good on them for sticking it to the Yanks'. Now I'm not saying the US government or tech corporations need anyone to stick up for them, but a bit of consistency wouldn't go amiss.
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It's been going for more than 7 years!
And yes, only the French could think that "daily motion" is a good name for a video site rather than a diurnal bowel discharge. From the same people that brought you "wannado" -- though that was appropriate, since mostly you simply coudn't do what you wanted with it.
-A.
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