Pornhub owner sold to private equity firm Ethical Capital

THE company behind Pornhub has been sold to a Canadian private equity firm as it grapples with multiple legal challenges over illegal videos.

Mindgeek, a Luxembourg-registered business headquartered in Canada that owns the online pornography and digital advertising empire, has been acquired by newly founded fund Ethical Capital Partners.

The owner of Pornhub is being sued in multiple cases over allegedly monetising sexually explicit videos of children and other non-consensual clips that have been posted on its websites.

Pornhub was launched in 2007, becoming part of a sprawling adult empire that draws huge volumes of internet traffic and turned over $460m (£378m) in 2018, according to its last financial report.

But Mindgeek’s business model has come under pressure after it was cut off by global payments networks after investigations found illegal videos on its websites.

The company was sued by dozens of victims of child sex trafficking, along with payments network Visa. The cases are ongoing and Mindgeek has denied any wrongdoing.

Last August, payments networks Visa and Mastercard cut ties with

Trafficjunky, the advertising arm of Mindgeek, after a court found Visa could be held liable for illegal usergenerated content found on Mindgeek’s websites. At the time, Visa said it “does not permit the use of our network for illegal activity”. Mastercard previously blocked payments from Pornhub in 2020, but has since reinstated some payments to Mindgeek’s subscription websites.

Ethical Capital Partners did not disclose how much it had paid for Mindgeek, or reveal how much money it had raised in order to fund the acquisition, the Financial Times reported.

The company’s previous majority owner was revealed to be Bernd Bergmair, an Austrian former Goldman Sachs banker living in London. His wife later told The Sunday Times she wanted him to get out of the porn business.

Solomon Friedman, of Ethical Capital Partners, told the Financial Times he wanted to improve transparency at Pornhub and Mindgeek. He added: “No previous shareholders retain any ownership, right or control of the company in any way.”

Mindgeek, like other porn providers, is expected to be subject to new age verification checks under the Government’s Online Safety Bill.