Web18 (Television Eighteen Group’s Internet Arm) To Acquire Three Internet companies

Television Eighteen India Ltd has announced that TV 18 Group’s, Internet arm, Web 18, on August 23, 2006, announced that it is acquiring three internet companies - Cricketnext.com, Compareindia.com and Urban Eye, a web design and technology firm. The acquisitions will help the Group consolidate its focus on the Internet business further.

The two companies Crieketnext.com and Compareindia.com, both are in the retail consumer space Cricketnext.com is one of India’s leading sports portal with a user base of over 5 million people Compareindia is a product comparison site, with a user base of over 2 million people and offers a comprehensive product comparison engine with thousands of products over 50+ categories.

These two portals will be able to complement some of the key television and Internet properties of the TV 18 Group. Cricketnext.com will complement the group’s online news portal, ibnlive.com, already the country’s leading news portal and also CNN IBN and IBN7 television channels. Compareindia.com will synergize with moneycontrol.com (India’s largest and else amongst the world’s largest financial portals). It will also draw synergies with Awaaz, the TV 18´s Hindi Consumer-Business offering on television.

Urban Eye is one of India’s leading web design and technology firm, with over 50 highly specialized internet technology professionals, which will help Web18 scale up its operations rapidly.

The companies are currently being restructured so as to align their operations to Webl8. The two portals will be relaunched shortly.

This is the second round of acquisitions that Web18 has announced. The company acquired a significant stake in Yatra.com and Jobstreet.com India a few months ago.

The Indian Internet industry is on the verge of explosive growth. By 2008, the online user base is expected to grow to 100 million. TV 18 has been consistently growing its Internet presence organically as well as through relevant acquisitions in the Consumer Internet space. "These acquisitions are in line with our strategy to strengthen our position in the Consumer Internet space. Web 18’s vision is to be the leader in the Consumer Internet space. We expect consumer focused services like online recruitment, financial services, travel services, product comparisons & home shopping, sports etc to drive the growth of the Internet in India," said Haresh Chawla, the TV 18 Group CEO. "We expect significant synergies & competitive advantage to emerge from this move", he said.

BMR & Associates acted as transaction advisors for TV 18 on this deal.

Source : Equity Bulls

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