Porn giant MindGeek sold to Ottawa capital firm
MindGeek, operator of Montreal porn site Pornhub, has been acquired by Ethical Capital Partners (ECP), an Ottawa private equity firm.
This change of hands was announced Thursday afternoon in a press release. The amount of the transaction is currently unknown. According to the Globe Mail, defense attorneys Solomon Friedman and Fady Mansour and former RCMP officer Derek Ogden are among the founders of ECP.
ECP says it wants to support the ethical aspect of the MindGeek business.
“At ECP, we look for innovative and ethical companies that operate at the frontiers of new and evolving sectors. With MindGeek, we have identified a dynamic technology brand that is built on foundations of trust, security and compliance,” argued Fady Mansour, Partner and Founder of ECP.
Before MindGeek did the subject of several legal challenges, its value was between $1.2 and $1.5 billion, according to TVA Nouvelles.
The Montreal pornography giant had found itself facing justice for having disseminated child pornography and sexual assault in particular. In the wake of a 2020 New York Times investigation, Visa and Mastercard spun off from MindGeek's operations.
