Mindgeek currently is the subject of several lawsuits in the United States and Canada, after videos of rape of minors were found on the platform at the end of 2020. In Canada, Mindgeek has been hit with a $600m class action lawsuit, with another $80m suit filed in California by 40 women. 

But majority shareholder Bernd Bergmair, an Austrian businessperson, has so far rejected three bids for the company by potential buyers, the Globe and Mail newspaper said.

This, despite the company’s turnover having collapsed after Visa and MasterCard decided to withdraw their services from the group’s three streaming sites. Mindgeek removed more than 10 million videos from its site in the wake of the lawsuits as part of a crackdown on illegal content.

Between cannabis and frozen yoghurt

Two of the three bids submitted exceed $600m, with Bruinen Investments, a company owned by Canadian cannabis entrepreneur Chuck Rifici, cited as a potential buyer. Another rejected candidate reportedly is an investor group led by Michael Serruya, who co-founded Canadian frozen yogurt company Yogen Früz.

MindGeek claims to have over 115 million daily visitors to its sites, making it one of the top 10 most visited websites in the world. The company has around 1,800 employees worldwide with offices in Montreal, Miami, Los Angeles and London. The company is officially headquartered in Luxembourg with subsidiaries also based in Ireland.

The company is owned by Bergmair and his two business partners, David Tassillo and Feras Antoon, the latter of whom acts as managing director. Antoon made headlines in the Canadian press last spring when his luxury mansion on the outskirts of Montreal was set on fire a few days after it was announced that it was up for sale for some CA$20m.

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.