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Speaking on BFM Business, Macron denied that he
was opposed to an alliance with Asia's PCCW and said he had
discussed the companies' plans with PCCW's chief, Richard Li.
"I did not say 'no' ... They have an industrial project which is
excellent," he said. "What I said was: 'Should we enter into
exclusive negotiations?' The answer is no. We should look at all
the offers."
The French state is the biggest shareholder in Orange with about
25 percent.
Asked about media reports that he favored a European alliance
for the operation, he said: "We (France) are a state and we have
a European digital policy."
Orange has been looking for a partner for over a year to help
Dailymotion expand internationally to try to compete with much
larger rival Google's YouTube.
In 2013, Orange was in talks to sell all or part of the site to
Yahoo but the French government scuppered the deal over concerns
about a promising start-up getting snapped up by a U.S. giant.
Dailymotion counts 128 million unique visitors per month
compared with 1 billion for Google's YouTube, and achieves less
than 100 million euros ($108 million) in annual sales.
($1 = 0.9246 euros)
(Reporting by Mark John; Editing by Blaise Robinson and James
Regan)
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