The world's largest porn site, Pornhub operating company is acquired

It has become clear that MindGeek, which operates Pornhub, the world's largest porn site, has been privately acquired by a Canadian investment fund. MindGeek has been sued for videos depicting minors' sexuality and videos containing non-consensual sexual violence, and the acquisition is also seen as an accompanying move.

Subscribe to read | Financial Times
https://www.ft.com/content/69c3295e-6f45-4b5f-8e7b-3b8d56ca46c8

Pornhub is under new ownership - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/16/23643975/mindgeek-pornhub-sale-ethical-capital-partners

Pornhub owner MindGeek sold to private equity firm | TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/16/pornhub-owner-mindgeek-sold-to-private-equity-firm/

In December 2020, major credit card brands Visa and Mastercard began processing payments on Pornhub after the New York Times published an article that ``Pornhub earns income from posted child pornography and revenge pornography.'' I had to stop. Since then, more than 10 million videos have been deleted all at once, and regulations have been changed severely, such as requiring approval for users who upload videos and stricter age verification.

Pornhub deletes more than 10 million movies, unapproved users are prohibited from uploading to eliminate illegal content - GIGAZINE

by Prachatai

On July 29, 2022, a federal judge in California said in a lawsuit related to MindGeek and child pornography that ``Visa can be speculated to have intentionally supported the monetization of child pornography by MindGeek.'' made a decision to approve. In addition, MindGeek was accused in June 2022 of ``Pornhub has hosted non-consensual sexually explicit videos for many years,'' and the CEO and COO resigned, and many management problems have been pointed out. increase.

CEO of parent company resigns after investigation report that `` Pornhub has hosted non-consensual sexually explicit videos for many years ''-GIGAZINE

In response to the above trend, it was reported that MindGeek will be acquired by Ethical Capital Partners (ECP), a Canadian private equity fund, in March 2023. Although the acquisition price is undisclosed, the recently announced Pornhub sales are estimated to be about $460 million (about 61 billion yen), with a profit margin close to 50%.

In a press release, EOP indicated its intention to ``solve the company's legal problems'' and said, ``We will focus on investing in MindGeek as an Internet leader in the fight against illegal online content.'' The Verge points out that ECP advertises age verification and image recognition tools for other adult sites and may take advantage of them. In a statement, Fadi Mansour, founding partner of ECO, said, 'We will combine MindGeek's dynamic technology brand, built on a foundation of trust, safety and compliance, with ECP's resources and regulatory, law enforcement and public engagement initiatives. , we will strengthen our operational policies with unique ideas based on our wide-ranging expertise across finance.”

ECP co-founding partner and attorney Solomon Friedman told the Financial Times, 'MindGeek's lawsuits and criticism stem from a misunderstanding of how MindGeek currently protects content. This is partly due to the secrecy surrounding the previous company owner.' , I hope to demonstrate transparency,' suggesting that it will change its management method.

Friedman said ECP's management has 'full control over the acquisition and assets,' and that MindGeek's former shareholders retain no ownership, rights or control over the company in any way. He said he didn't. Also, MindGeek will continue to be operated by executives who have not resigned yet, but details such as how many people will remain are not disclosed.