Back in March, the Wall Street Journal reported that Yahoo was about to buy a controlling stake in French video site Dailymotion. The company was in said to be in for as much as 75% of the company.

The Journal is now reporting that this is not happening, though the companies were evidently in talks. Sam Schechner and Amir Efrati report:

At an April 12 meeting in Mr. Montebourg’s Paris office, the minister told Yahoo’s chief operating officer, Henrique de Castro, and France Télécom’s chief financial officer, Gervais Pellissier, that he didn’t want 75% of a rare French Internet success story to be sold to an American Web giant, according to people briefed on the meeting.

“I won’t let you sell one of France’s best startups,” Mr. Montebourg told Mr. Pelissier, his voice raised, according to people briefed on the meeting. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

Both Yahoo and Dailymotion are keeping quiet on the whole thing.

This could have been a major acquisition for Yahoo, which has not been shy about acquiring companies since Marissa Mayer took over. Perhaps the most important acquisition so far has been that of Summly, which Yahoo quickly integrated into its new apps for iOS and Android.

Image: Google Talks Archive (YouTube)