One of the world's biggest porn companies has opened an office in Dublin's Silicon Docks district.
Manwin, which owns dozens of adult sites such as YouPorn and Tranny Surprise, has opened an office and hired 33 staff only six months after setting up a low-tax intellectual property hub in the county to handle its racy online content, the Irish Independent reports.
Manwin, the latest Internet giant to open an office in Dublin's Silicon Docks, is just yards from the entrance of Facebook and is also close to Google and LinkedIn. The company is located on one floor of a nondescript serviced office close to Grand Canal Quay, but its presence is discreet with no outward sign of the company.
Manwin, which is owned by German-born 'King of Porn' Fabian Thylmann, is estimated to make €100m a year from its online activities.
"We are in the midst of global expansion and very happy to be able to tap into the amazing local talent found in Ireland," a Manwin spokesperson told the Irish Independent.
The spokesperson refused to comment on whether the company had located here in part for tax purposes.
"Manwin is a private company and accordingly, matters pertaining to its operations are treated in the same manner," the spokesperson said.
"Manwin is a leading international IT firm, and one of the top five bandwidth consumption companies in the world," she added.
Documents filed in Dublin's Company Registration Office (CRO) show the company has a complex corporate structure in Ireland with its interests in Dublin linked to its other businesses in Miami Beach, Florida and Boulevard Royal in Luxembourg.
Manwin's five Irish subsidiaries are Manwin Ireland Holdco, Manwin Content RK, Manwin Content DP, Manwin Billing Ireland and Manwin Tubes. Dublin-based Manwin Content RK Ltd lists over 1,500 online movies and websites.
The CRO documents show an asset purchase agreement valued at $81m with pages of legal documents governing patents, intellectual property and intergroup deals between Manwin's Irish interests and the rest of the world.
Ireland's low tax policy has been extremely beneficial to multinationals with a recent report identifying Ireland as the third biggest tax haven in the world for US profits. Media and tech firms such as Apple have set up special intellectual property holding companies in the country to avail of the low taxes.
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