Minister Blocks Dailymotion Sale

French industrial renewal minister Arnaud Montebourg has blocked Yahoo’s efforts to buy Dailymotion, the country’s equivalent of YouTube.

He said Yahoo’s attempts to “devour” Dailymotion aren’t in the country’s best interests.

“I won’t let you sell one of France’s best startups,” Montebourg’s reported to have told France Telecom CFO Gervais Pellissier.

Yahoo was looking to buy 75 percent of Dailymotion, the world’s 12th-largest video sharing site, which is valued at around euro 228 million ($300 million).

The hitch is the state owns 27 percent of Dailymotion and Montebourg doesn’t want France to part with more than half of the company.

“The government is doing its job,” he explained. “We did not think it was a good idea to leave Dailymotion in the hands of a company whose health is sometimes unsteady.”

Yahoo, which hoped to build up Dailymotion to rival Google’s YouTube, has now walked away from the deal.