The parent company of Pornhub acquired by a Canadian investment fund

The Canadian private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners (ECP) announced Thursday, March 16, the acquisition of Mindgeek, parent company of the largest pornographic site in the world, Pornhub. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but according to information from Montreal Journal, the amount would amount to approximately 400 million euros. The ECP company says it wants to strengthen Mindgeek’s notoriety and position it as “leader in the fight against illegal content on the Internet”.

MindGeek, headquartered in Luxembourg but with major offices in Montreal, has been the subject of several lawsuits in recent years alleging that it profited from the distribution of child pornography and videos of sexual acts. non-consensual sex – charges the company denies.

“We believe that the MindGeek team and all MindGeek platforms operate by placing trust and security at the heart of everything they do”said Sarah Bain, one of the founders of Ottawa-based firm ECP. Founded in 2004, MindGeek operates an extensive portfolio of adult entertainment sites, including Pornhub, YouPorn, Redtube and Men.com.

Multiple charges

The Internet porn market leader, however, has been facing heavy criticism ever since The New York Times published an article in December 2020 in which Pornhub was accused of uploading illegal content, including child pornography and rape videos. The site and its competitors have also been accused on numerous occasions by actresses and actors or producers of X content of not doing enough to prevent the dissemination of illegal copies of their works.

This has led Canadian parliamentarians to question its executives over alleged abuse, while companies Mastercard and Visa have suspended payments on the Pornhub site. Mindgeek’s top executives resigned in June 2022. As of 2021, the mansion owned by Feras Antoon, one of Mindgeek’s owners, had been destroyed in arson. The investigation is still open.