Microsoft may soon be one of the stakeholders in French online video service Dailymotion, according to its parent company Orange. “Talks are continuing…with Microsoft. This doesn’t mean that we will reach an agreement but I am very hopeful we will succeed,” said Orange CEO Stephane Richard this week in a television interview, picked up by the Wall Street Journal. Its piece suggests Orange is keen to sell a 10% stake in Dailymotion to Microsoft, and secure preload deals on Microsoft devices including Windows Phone smartphones. Dailymotion might not be YouTube-popular, but it has a decent audience – 135m unique viewers in January. Orange tried to sell a majority stake in the service to Yahoo last year, but was stymied by opposition from the French government to a big US tech company owning the majority of a French service. Microsoft, of course, is a big US tech company, but the shift to a minority stake may ensure this deal gets past the politicians.
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