DAPD takes over Diora News
The German news agency DAPD is further expanding its French business. Following the French-language service of Associated Press (AP), DAPD is now also buying Diora News, a provider of French-language news content for cell phones.
The agency DAPD is taking over the French Diora News via its existing subsidiary Sipa News, as the company announced on Thursday. Although the purchase price has not been officially announced, it is between 1 and 5 million euros, according to the German business newspaper Handelsblatt.
Diora News supplies the French and African markets and its clients include the mobile communications provider Orange. Founded in 1999, the agency and its 16 employees specialize in real-time news updates.
It was only at the end of March that DAPD announced that it was taking over AP's French-language service. It intends to offer a nationwide domestic service in France as soon as possible. DAPD was created in 2009 after the German news service (ddp) acquired AP's German-language service and the two agencies merged. In summer 2011, dapd acquired the photo agency SIPA Press in France. (SDA/AFP)
