Piramal Enterprises acquires five OTC Brands

The consumer products division of Piramal Enterprises Ltd has acquired trademark rights for five over-the-counter (OTC) drugs for India from Organon India Pvt. Ltd and MSD BV, Indian subsidiaries of US based pharmaceutical leader Merck and Co, for a consideration of Rs.92 crore.

The acquisition includes the brands Naturolax, Lactobacil and Farizym, which Piramal Enterprises intends to continue in the OTC business in the gastro-intestinal segment. The Indian OTC Market is approximately Rs. 15,000 crore in size and grew 13-14% in 2014. Last month, Piramal Enterprises had acquired 100% stake in Little India, the country’s oldest baby care products brand, for an undisclosed amount.

Piramal Enterprises consumer division owns popular brands such as Lacto Calamine Lotion, Caladryl, antacid brand Polycrol and headache drug Saridon. The company entered the OTC market with the acquisition of Saridon from Roche Holding AG and Lacto Calamine from Duphar Interfran Ltd in the early 1990s. They were followed up by joint venture with Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc. and Boots Plc. to get their OTC range to India.

Piramal entry into pharmaceuticals came around 1988 when the company acquired Nicholas Laboratories Ltd. for Rs. 1.6 crore at a time when most multinational drug makers were exiting India. 

Wipro buys Viteos

Wipro Ltd. has agreed to buy Viteos Group, a securities processing and fund administration services provider, for $130 Million in an effort to expand its portfolio of services to financial companies.

The 12 year old New Jersey based Viteos provides services including processing, reconciliation of trade, settlements and customer data across asset classes and currencies for investment banking clients in the US, Europe and Asia. Wipro plans to use Viteos licensing platform to offer services to buy side companies, a term used by investment bankers to refer to institutions that buy investment services such as mutual funds, pension funds and insurers.

Wipro, India’s third largest software exporter already offers many of these solutions to its clients on the sell side of capital markets. They in turn, sell investment services to asset management companies. Viteos, which generated $26.5 Million in revenue in the year ended March with roughly 400 employees, will retain its brand identity to further strengthen its presence among existing clients.

The acquisition reflects a broader shift in India’s software outsourcing industry towards building an arsenal of intellectual property led high margin software platforms rather than relying on an army of engineers to offer technology solutions to clients. Wipro and Infosys have also been investing heavily in startups to build new age technology solutions for clients.

Panasonic buys Hussmann

Japanese electronics maker Panasonic Corp. is buying Bridgeton based refrigeration firm Hussmann for $1.5 Billion in a deal. It will leverage Panasonic technology and help it break into the US food distribution industry.

Panasonic like several Japanese peers has been moving away from unprofitable smartphones and plasma television sets, focusing instead on higher margin products, such as high end cold storage, LED lighting and remote monitoring. Panasonic will buy full control of Hussmann from private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice and industrial group Ingersoll Rand.

Panasonic has said it is targeting 2.5 trillion yen of sales from its offerings for businesses rather than consumers, in 2018, 300 Billion of which will come from food distribution. To date, it has mostly been present in Asia, and has sought ways to break into the United States, the industry largest market. Hussmann, which will become a fully owned subsidiary of Panasonic, has a leading share in the US market, manufacturing and maintaining refrigerated and freezer display cases.

Careers360 acquires Entrancecorner.com

Education service provider Careers360 has acquired Delhi-based Education start-up Entrancecorner.com which prepares candidates for entrance seats. This is Careers360 second acquisition in December. Earlier this month, the company has acquired online enrolment startup NoPaperForms.

Entrancecorner.com acquisition will help Careers360 expand its reach and deliver better value to all stakeholders. Entrancecorner.com is a lead student portal in India despite facing competition from some well-funded portals. Entrancecorner.com entire team will move to a new office and operate under the Careers360 management. Careers360 in a short span has established itself for its credibility, reach and audiences.

Entrancecorner.com helps students at different phases of their academic career: explore different careers options, help them make informed career decisions as well as equip them with resources to realize their career choice. It also provides latest news and updates about careers and exams, guidance from experts in different careers, exam preparation material, and social platform to connect with similar students, free test series, admissions and counseling details etc.

Last year, Careers360 raised capital from five angel investors for expanding its business of helping students take career decisions. Its investors include Ranjan Pai venture capitalist Mahesh Murthy and education company Career Launcher founder Satya Narayanan R. 

PepperTap acquires Jiffstore

The Hyperlocal Delivery service provider PepperTap (Nuvo Logistics Pvt. Ltd) has acquired smaller delivery start-up Jiffstore for an undisclosed amount through cash and stock. Nuvo Logistics, which also runs a reverse logistics business said that it plans to spin off the fast growing Hyperlocal business into a new entity by February-March. Reverse Logistics is the process of handling returns or goods rejected by customers.

Nuvo works with clients such as Snapdeal, Paytm and Shopclues. Nuvo fulfills almost 10,000-12,000 orders a day and is operational across 30 cities. With this move, the company is trying to avoid passing on the valuation of the reverse logistics a profitable entity to the investors who are putting in money specifically for the Hyperlocal business. The reverse logistics business currently makes Rs. 4 Crore annual profit.

PepperTap acquisition of Jiffstore is largely to get the company team and expand its presence in Bengaluru, where Jiffstore has been operating for more than two years. Jiffstore has been operating for more than two years. Jiffstore employs close to 40 people, who are slated to join PepperTap Gurgaon and Bengaluru offices. Jiffstore had last raised an undisclosed amount from Unitus Seed Fund and Times Internet Ltd. in June.

PepperTap earns more than 90% of its revenue from the commissions it earns from shops. The rests comes from the delivery cost. It charges consumers for orders below a minimum delivery benchmark. Recently, it also started marketing activities for packaged consumer goods companies by means of banner advertisements and exclusive launches.

Spencer acquires MeraGrocer.com

Retail Chain Spencer Retail Ltd, has acquired Gurgaon based Omnipresent Retail India Pvt. Ltd, which runs online grocery business MeraGrocer.com to enter the e-commerce space. The online grocery brand, which sold a gross merchandise value (GMV) worth Rs.5 Crore a year, caters to Gurgaon and Delhi. The acquisition will provide Spencer an omnichannel space.

Spencer would provide its entire basket of retail products through its online platform, starting with grocery and food and later extending it to non-food items. At present, Spencer Retail has presence in 35 cities with 122 stores across India. There are three more stores in the pipeline which will be added by March 2016. Spencer has plans to utilize the existing logistics and infrastructure, though it also plans to tie up with delivery companies for resources.

Meragrocer.com has been in operations from the end of 2014, and its customers can order through a mobile-app, IVR and pay either through an e-wallet or cash-on-delivery. Spencer expects to complete the acquisition and integration process in the next one or two month. At present there are close to 20 employees, all of whom will be absorbed in Spencer.

Thinkcell acquires Testfunda.com

Hyderabad based Thinkcell Learning Solutions Pvt. Ltd (formerly Gateforum Educational Services Pvt. Ltd) has acquired Mumbai based Enabilon Learning Pvt. Ltd, which offers test preparation packages through Testfunda.com for an undisclosed amount.

Testfunda.com focuses on the MBA and bank test prep market. The platform claims to have over 6 lakh registered users and 250 institutional partners. Earlier this month, Thinkcell acquired the YUKTI brand to focus on the 12^th board exams and engineering and medical entrance exams like JEE, MHT-CET and AIPMT.

With the acquisition of Testfunda.com, Thinkcell has now been structured into four verticals – Gateforum for GATE Preparation, YUKTI for preparing students from 8-12 science division for JEE and Medical entrance, Logiquest (Kaplan Certified Education Partner) for GRE, GMAT, SAT, TOEFL, and USMLE, and Testfunda.com for online MBA and bank test-prep market. Thinkcell is investing Rs 30 crore over two years for diversification including acquisitions. Last year, private equity firm ASK Pravi Capital Advisors had acquired a majority stake in Thinkcell.

With an increasing number of online learning startups, the market has started to see signs of consolidation. Several M&A have happened in the space over the last few months. In April, online test platform Toppr had acquired EasyPrep, an online entrance exam preparation platform. Same month, Singapore based XSEED Education Pte acquired online learning management business of Pleolabs.

Careers360 acquires NoPaperForms

Maheshwer Peri-promoted Careers360, an education service provider acquired Mumbai based education start-up NoPaperForms for an undisclosed amount. NoPaperForms is a four year old enrolment management platform that helps colleges and universities manage their online admission process.

The acquisition will help Careers360 augment and strengthen its B2B clientele offering and help institutes spend smartly on digital media. Currently, NoPaperForms is managing more than 200,000 applications for 30+ clients that include top B-schools and universities. With their market reach coupled with investments in technology and product they hope to deploy the platform in 500 plus college within the next 2-3 years.

Internet penetration growing, the pace of online admission will grow further and the company under Careers360 will tap the market better. Last year, Careers360 raised capital from five angel investors for expanding its business of helping students take career decisions. Careers360 investors include Ranjan Pai, Venture Capitalist Mahesh Murthy and education company Career Launcher founder Satya Narayanan R.

MockBank acqui-hires Litoro

MockBank Learning Pvt. Ltd, a test preparation start-up for government jobs has acquired Vijayawada based web and mobile services company Litoro Tech Solutions Pvt. Ltd.  The purchase is part of a so-called acqui-hire strategy in which one company buys another to gain access to the target talent pool rather than its products and services.

Litoro was founded in 2012. In September, MockBank raised $400,000 in a seed round of funding led by Blume Ventures. Singapore based angel fund Mercatus Capital and angel investors such as SlideShare co-founder Amit Ranjan and Bain and Co. India chairman Srivatsan Rajan also participated in the round.

MockBank focuses on jobs related to the banking financial services and insurance sector, including public sector banks, Reserve Bank of India and Life Insurance Corporation of India. MockBank also plans to explore categories like civil and judicial services, engineering and teaching. The company claims to have more than 100,000 users over 5,000 among them being paying customers. MockBank charges customers between Rs. 150 and Rs. 6000 depending on the services.

India has become the largest e-learning market after the US, and the sector is projected to grow at a compounded annual rate of 17.4% between 2013 and 2018, twice as fast as the global average. At least 73 companies in the online education segment have raised institutional capital this year. About $63 Million have been pumped into this sector since 2014, while Simplilearn which has raised $28 Million, and Toppr with about $12.2 Million.

Paytm Acquires Near.in

Mobile wallet and e-commerce company Paytm has bought home service marketplace Near.in for an undisclosed amount. The move is part of its increasing focus on online to offline (O2O) and Hyperlocal commerce. The company expects more than half of its sales to come from the Hyperlocal channel by 2016.

Near.in (run by Thumbspot Inc.), which connects users with local businesses for home services through a marketplace app, was founded in December 2014. It last raised a seed funding of $300,000 by a group of Angel investors. Other than this there are investors from Healthkart, SAP Labs, and Aspiring Minds. Near has a significant network of local service providers in place and a stellar team leading it.

Paytm is India’s largest mobile commerce platform. With its mobile first strategy, Paytm does more than $100 Million transactions of various digital and physical goods every month. Paytm Wallet is India’s dominant mobile Paytm service platform. Based in Delhi-NCR, its investors include Ant Financials (AliPay), SAIF partners, Sapphire Venture and Silicon Valley Bank.

The company also plans to venture into travel with Hotel, air and rail ticket bookings in partnership with online travel companies such as Goibibo and Yatra and budget accommodation marketplaces OYO Rooms and ZO Rooms. The company already sells bus tickets. Apart from tying up with online travel partners, the company will also allow offline travel agents to list on its platform.

Oyo Rooms may buy Zo Rooms

Budget Hotel site Oyo Rooms (Oravel Stays Pvt. Ltd) has expressed interest in buying smaller rival Zo Rooms, which is scrambling to raise a fresh round of funds in order to avoid being sold. The overture from Oyo Rooms follows the entry of large online travel firms MakeMyTrip, Yatra Online Pvt. Ltd and Goibibo into the budget hotel segment.

Though Zo Rooms, run by Zostel Hospitality Pvt. Ltd is currently in conversations with at least two investors for a fresh funding round, it faces an uphill task as its biggest investor; Tiger Global Management has decided to go slow on writing large cheques for the smaller companies in its portfolio. Zo raised roughly $35 Million from Tiger and Orios Management this year.

Oyo Rooms is the early market leader among budget hotels, having raised $100 Million from Japan Softbank Group and others in August. Budget hotel aggregators were supposed to be the next big thing for investors and entrepreneurs, but as with most other new, unproven business such as food tech, investors and entrepreneurs seem to have overestimated the potential of the business.

Budget hotel launches by online travel agencies has only made investors in hotel startups more cautious. MakeMyTrip, Yatra and Goibibo launched their budget hotel businesses, putting them in direct competition with Oyo and Zo and potentially triggering consolidation among startups. The online travel firms have already delisted Oyo and Zo from their platforms, indicating their ambition to build a budget hotels business independently. 

Wipro buys German Firm Cellent

Wipro Ltd has bought Cellent AG, a German Technology company that implements and maintains SAP (systems applications and products) software for clients in automobile and manufacturing segments, for $78 Million. The purchase is the latest move by India’s third largest software firm to scale up its business in the DACH or Germany, Austria and Switzerland of Western Europe.

This is Bengaluru based Wipro second purchase in the region this year. It bought Denmark based Designit for $95 Million in July to strengthen its presence in the digital space. Cellent is a well-established player with marquee customers, a well-known brand and has strong local talent. Cellent client include marquee car maker Daimler AG and lens maker Carl Zeiss AG and SAP is a business software used to run basic functions in finance, human resources and manufacturing.

Wipro bought Cellent from its parent firm, German bank Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg. Wipro will also see Cellent’s more than 800 consultants join the firm even as it expects to close the acquisition by the fourth quarter of 2015-16. Many buyouts by homegrown information technology firm this year are in the SAP space. Earlier this year, Infosys paid $200 Million to buy automation technology provider Panaya.

Mid-tier Bengaluru based software exported Mindtree bought UK based Bluefin Solutions, which helps migrate SAP installed software, like ERP to the cloud. Wipro 8000 strong manufacturing and hi-tech segment is the second largest industry vertical, behind banking and finance. 

Quikr acquires RealtyCompass

Online classifieds website Quikr India Pvt. Ltd acquired real estate analytics firm Blitzkrieg Technology Pvt. Ltd which operates under the name RealtyCompass for an undisclosed sum. This is the second acquisition by the company in the sector. It acquired Indian Realty Exchange (IRX) an aggregator of real estate agents.

It also made a strategic investment in AN Virtual world Tech Ltd, a hyper-local search engine providing street views. The latest acquisition will help QuikrHomes access technology built by RealtyCompass that helps consumers and investors in their decision making process by providing builder ratings and detailed project analysis. As part of its growth strategy, Quikr has been focusing on automobiles, jobs, services and customer to customer sales.

The size of Real estate sector is expected to reach $853 Billion by 2028 and its contribution to India’s gross domestic product will be 13%. While Quikr competes with Naspers backed OLX in the classified business, its competitors in the real estate sector are Housing.com, PropTiger Realty India Pvt. Ltd, Magicbricks Realty Services Ltd and 99 Acres.

Softbank backed Housing.com which started off as a listing website and now enables users to buy and sell properties online, acquired risk assessment company Realty Business Intelligence for Rs. 10 Crore in cash in June and Indian Real Estate Forum in March. PropTiger also acquired Makaan.com in April. QuikrHomes currently connects customers from more than 1000 cities and towns across India and it helps conclude more than 200,000 transactions a month.

Quikr to acquire CommonFloor

Online classified portal Quikr India Pvt. Ltd is in the final stage of discussions to buy real estate portal CommonFloor.com in a share swap deal. The valuation is expected to be in the range of $120 Million to $200 Million.

CommonFloor owned by maxHeap Technologies, in January raised an undisclosed amount from Google Inc. venture arm Google Capital in a deal that valued the company at around $200 Million. The other investor in CommonFloor is Accel Partners. Tiger Global, which has over the past one year, invested in scores of big and small Indian Startups is currently in the process of pulling back from big ticket investments.

Tiger Global is re-allocating its investments to stronger companies in its portfolio, including Quikr which is in process of realigning its business, creating new business verticals across real estates, automobiles and jobs, among others. Quikr has so far raised $346 Million from investors such as Investment AB Kinnevik Tiger Global, Steadview Capital Management and Matrix Partners India.

CommonFloor has so far raised more than $60 Million from Accel Partners, Tiger Global and Google Capital over multiple rounds. According to some investors, the sector saw a churn after Softbank backed Housing.com owned by Locon Solutions Pvt. Ltd, raised large amount of Capital and invested heavily in marketing and advertising, pushing other companies to follow suit.

Sports365 acquires Tennishub.in

Bangalore based Pulse Sport Pvt. Ltd, which runs Sports365, an online store of sports goods and fitness equipment has acquired online Tennis store Tennishub.in in an all-stock deal. The aim is to specialize in different verticals and cater to the specific set of audience in a more customized manner.

Tennishub.in is an online tennis store founded by tennis player and Olympian Vishnu Vardhan and sports entrepreneur Afroze Khan. The team of Tennishub will join Sports365. It consists of 18 employees. Sports365 has also launched a new portal catering to running enthusiasts called Runninghub.in and plans to launch different segments for cycling and outdoor products in the next three months.

Runninghub.in will offer a selection of running shoes, apparel, running gear and nutrition related products. It will also allow runners to interact with experts and get advice in real time. Sports365 raised $1.5 Million last year from US based venture capital firm Zolon Ventures and Powerhouse Ventures. It will close another $6 Million in funding in six weeks. The investors are likely going to be a venture capital funds and companies who are related to sports business.

It will spend over $4-5 Million of this money into marketing and product development including expansion of its range of private label products. It currently sells apparel and accessories. It will expand it to three more categories including fitness. For Marketing, it plans to continue with aggressive Social Media and re-targeting campaigns. It claims to be selling 25,000 products per month with an average ticket size of INR 1600-1700.

Besides Mahesh Bhupathi and his wife Lara Dutta, the company has cricketer Yuvraj Singh as its stakeholders. While there aren’t many firms in the sports category in India, the company locks horns with general merchandiser such as Snapdeal and Flipkart, who sells sports and fitness categories on their platform.

Portea Medical buys MedybizPharma

Healthtech Startup Portea Medical, which provides health care at home for patients acquired Bengaluru, based specialized pharmaceutical distributor MedybizPharma in a cash and stock deal for an undisclosed amount.

The company is engaged in distribution, prescription refill, and therapy compliance support for specialty medicines and provides patient assistance by improving access and increasing therapy compliance. The company services corporates, insurance companies, hospitals, institutions and nursing homes and cover diabetes, cardiology, oncology, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, tuberculosis and neurology.

MedybizPharma was started in 2009 and has served more than 200,000 patients. It has 200 employees and is present across 26 cities in India. The company was acquired from the Reliance ADA Group by its Management Team in 2011. Portea Medical handles more than 60,000 home visits a month across 24 cities in India. It had received $37.5 Million in Series B funding from Accel, IFC, Qualcomm ventures and Ventureast in September.

Portea focuses on general primary health care, post-hospitalization care, chronic disease management and allied services such as diagnostics and medical equipment on hire thereby bringing the entire gamut of healthcare services to a patient doorstep. The company works with Hospitals, insurance companies and individuals to improve health outcomes by providing continuity of care in home setting through doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and nursing attendants employed by Portea. It has partnered with more than 50 hospitals and has a network of referring physicians all over India.

NumberMall acquires BankSmarts Solutions

NumberMall, a Hyderabad based merchant engaged payment gateway services platform has acquired all the businesses of Delhi Headquartered analytics startup BankSmarts Solutions for an undisclosed sum.

The acquisition will extend NumberMall analytics capabilities, customer reach and merchant offers. The combination is expected to enable new classes of products and services that meet customer needs in assisted ecommerce. Incepted in 2012, NumberMall annual turnover is around Rs 120 Crore, with Business growing 10 percent per month-on-month, though the company has set its sights on 25 percent month-on-month growth.

Besides, it has so far serviced more than 30 Million customers on its platform through 16,000 touch points. During January this year, it raised Rs 5 Crore in equity funding from SRI Capital. Founded in 2013, BankSmarts Solution helps marketers reach the right customers for their products and services by creating customer maps, including customer preferences, purchase propensity, and responsiveness to promotions and offers based on their profile and past purchases.

The solutions help design promotions optimally, and then track effectiveness of promotions in real time, taking corrective action if necessary. The technology platforms work on streaming big data and leverage predictive analysis and machine learning. Kae Capital and SRI Capital are seed investors in the company.

Pfizer to buy Allergan

The biggest deal of pharmaceutical is here and Pfizer Inc. will become Pfizer Plc. The maker of Viagra and Lipitor has struck a deal to buy Botox Maker Allergan Plc. in a transaction valued at about $160 Million. The complex deal, the biggest ever in the healthcare sector, will allow Pfizer to shift its legal base to Ireland in a so called “inversion” that would reduce its tax rate.

New York based Pfizer and Allergan, headquartered in Ireland said Allergan shareholders will receive 113 shares in the combined company for each share held. The deal values Allergan shares at $363.63 each. Pfizer stockholders will have the option of receiving one share of the combined company for each of their Pfizer shares or receive cash. Aggregate amount of cash to be paid is not less than $6 Billion or more than $12 Billion.

Apart from male libido drug Viagra and cholesterol drug Lipitor, Pfizer major drugs include nerve pain treatment Lyrica and Prevnar, a treatment for Pneumonia. Allergan best known for its anti-wrinkle treatment Botox also makes Alzheimer drug Namenda and dry eye medication Restasis. The business of Pfizer and Allergan will be combined under Allergan Plc., which will be renamed Pfizer Plc.

Take Solutions acquires Ecron Acunova

Take Solutions Ltd, Chennai based Technology Company with interest in life sciences has entered into definitive agreements to acquire Life Sciences services player, Ecron Acunova. The company acquired Ecron Acunova in Rs. 115 crore.

Ecron Acunova is a life sciences services company delivering pharmaceutical research services to global clients across South East Asia, Central & Nordic Europe and North America. There is a growing focus on quality, data, analytics, and outcomes in the industry, resulting in increased pharma/biotech R&D spending and funding.

TAKE and EA combined attributes will strengthen TAKE position as a fully integrated differentiated life sciences services provider to large and small global pharmaceutical companies and thereby broaden the addressable market. TAKE will add expertise in the areas of Biosimilars, Regenerative Medicine and Diagnostic imaging agent’s space which are emerging growth areas.

It would help TAKE move the addressable market for its services to $30 Billion and will enhance company presence in Europe and North countries. With this acquisition, TAKE will add audit ready infrastructure in Europe and India, and parts of South Asia to its expanding footprint. 

Apollo Tyres acquires Germany Reifencom

After having failed to acquire the US based Cooper Tire in a $2.5 Billion deal, the country second largest tyre manufacturer by Sales, Apollo Tyres had acquired Reifencom GmBH, one of the largest tyre distributors in Germany for Euro 45.6 Million.

Reifencom GmBH has an online presence in six countries – Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, and Denmark. In Addition, it operates 37 stores and service centres across Germany. Acquisition will enable Apollo to improve its mix of distribution channels in Germany and Europe and aid in increasing the visibility of Apollo and Vredestein tyres offline and especially in the fast growing online retail space.

Reifencom has turnover of 147 Million euro in 2014. The acquisition will give Apollo two benefits: increase in number of channels overseas as well as access to retailing multiple brands. Apollo already has 3,500 dealers/partners in Europe which will now get further enhanced due to the acquisition of Reifencom.

The success of Reifencom GmBH is attributed to its highly efficient logistics system, which ensures there is a guarantee of a high degree of availability of all kinds of tyres and rims, even during busy periods like spring and autumn. Reifencom GmBH procures tyres and rims from leading manufacturers thereby ensuring a high level of quality.

Marriott to buy Starwood

Marriott International Inc. will buy Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. for $12.2 Billion to create the world’s largest hotel chain with top brands including Sheraton, Ritz Carlton and the Autograph Collection.

The combined company will own or franchise more than 5,500 hotels with 11 Million rooms worldwide and give Marriott greater presence in markets such as Europe, Latin America, & Asia including India and China. Marriott currently has three-quarters of its rooms in the United States. Starwood, which also owns St. Regis and Aloft Hotel brands, gets nearly two thirds of its revenue from outside the country.

Starwood had essentially put itself up for sale in April, when it said it was considering strategic alternatives, taking about 14% off its stock up to Friday’s close. The company which had a market value of $12.67 Billion had reached out of InterContinental Hotels Group Plc. Wyndham Worldwide Corp and sovereign wealth funds for a possible deal.

Starwood shareholders will get 0.92 Marriott Class A share and $2 in cash for each share held. They will also get about $7.80 per share from the spinoff of Starwood timeshare business and subsequent merger with Interval Leisure Group Inc.  

R-Com to acquire Sistema

Reliance Communications Ltd. is acquiring Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd Wireless business for equity worth Rs. 2,100 crore. It has also committed to paying Sistema liabilities to the government, the present value of which is Rs. 2,400 crore. R-com has paid three times Sistema annual revenues of Rs. 1500 crore.

This is much higher than Bharti Airtel Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd enterprise value of sales valuation of around 2.2 times. While these companies have operating profit margins of over 30%, Sistema reported operating losses were over 30% of its revenues. Sistema holds 800 Mega Hertz spectrums in eight key circles, which can be extremely valuable for Reliance Jio.

Sistema will be launching its LTE Services, including voice over LTE, with much wider coverage, vis-à-vis spectrum in higher frequency bands. Sistema holds spectrum in lucrative circles such as Delhi, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kolkata. Sistema spectrum in these eight circles is worth Rs. 7,955 crore. Not all of this will necessarily flow into R-com books, even if Reliance Jio agrees the price.

This is because the government spectrum trading guidelines includes a clause that states that for any spectrum acquired in the March 2013 auction trading will be permitted only if the price differential the latest price auction price is paid.

CarTrade buys CarWale

The auto market in India is both huge and disorganized. A number of well-funded online portals have come up in recent times to connect sellers with buyers more efficiently in this chaotic market. But now consolidation is under way as competition gets intense.

Online automobile classifieds firm CarTrade has acquired rival CarWale from German Media conglomerate Axel Springer signaling the rising consolidation in the industry segment. This comes soon after another major player in this space; CarDekho announced the acquisition of Times Internet Zigwheels. Earlier it had acquired another portal called Gaadi from the Ibibo group.

CarTrade buyout of CarWale comes a year after it raised $30 Million in a funding round led by Warburg Pincus and Chip Perry. In November 2013, CarDekho parent company Girnar raised $15 Million in a Series A round of funding from Sequoia Capital. In January 2015, it raised its big Series B round of $50 Million from Chinese investment management firm Hillhouse Capital and Hong Kong based hedge fund Tybourne Capital.

Indian Tycoon Ratan Tata had also pumped in an undisclosed amount into the company. In May, another undisclosed round of funding came from private sector lender HDFC Bank. With all the money in the bank, CarDekho has some serious muscle to flex in its tussle         with CarTrade.

Quikr Buys Indian Realty Exchange

Online classifieds portal Quikr India Pvt. Ltd had acquired Indian Realty Exchange (IRX, incorporated as 123 Startup Ventures Pvt. Ltd) a real estate agent aggregator, for an undisclosed amount to strengthen its real estate vertical QuikrHomes.

With its latest round of funding ($60 Million) in September, Quikr strengthened its push in five business segments automobiles, real estate, jobs, services and customer-to-customer sales to explore new sources of revenue. These five categories account for about 90% of the 10 Million listings of platform. This acquisition will allow it to gain access to real estate agents.

QuikrHomes currently has customers in 1000 cities and towns across India and concludes 200,000 transactions per month. IRX helps users connect to the agents for buying and selling property, and updates listings with locations in real time and features agent reviews, rankings, trust networks and a chat platform for agents to exchange inventory and requirements with users and other agents.

Quikr has received funding of around $200 Million since its inception in 2008, and counts Tiger Global Management, Kinnevik, Matrix Partners India, Nokia Growth Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, Omidyar Network, Warburg Pincus, and eBay as its investors. QuikrHomes enters into competition with CommonFloor, Housing.com, PropTiger, NoBroker, and Magic Bricks. 

Gomalon acquires Bookmyspa

Two year old spa and salon booking portal, Bookmyspa has been acquired by Gomalon, a startup that lists wellness services in Bengaluru, in an equity deal of about Rs 12 Crore. The buyout has made Gomalon the largest appointment booking platform in Bengaluru with over 2,000 vendors. The two entities will be merged after the deal is closed.

Gomalon was founded in February as a discovery and booking platform for wellness centres. It is currently operational in Bangalore where it lists over 270 services across 12 categories. Gomalon will expand to metros in next 12 months.  The two year old Bookmyspa.in has operations in Bangalore and Hyderabad. The startup also had plans to launch in Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai.

The combined entity would compete with the likes of BeautyBooked, Ziffi, Vyomo, Purplle, ManageMySpa and other online ventures. India’s beauty and wellness industry has seen a lot of investor action. India B&W sector is to be worth Rs 1 Lakh Crore this year. Several online players that facilitate listings, discovery and booking of wellness services have raised external capital.

Bengaluru based Vyomo Pvt. Ltd, which runs a beauty and wellness platform had raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding led by TaxiForSure in June. In January, Mumbai based Lifestyle Pvt. Ltd; the company behind Purplle.com secured an undisclosed amount in Series A funding from early to growth stage VC firm IvyCap Ventures.

Piramal Enterprises acquires Baby Care Brand Little

Piramal Enterprises has entered the baby care segment by acquiring a 100% stake in Little India, the country oldest baby care products brand, for an undisclosed amount. This acquisition will add eight categories to Piramal Enterprises consumer product division which sells Lacto Calamine Lotion and Headache drug Saridon.

Little baby care range includes feeding, grooming, bath, bedtime, clothing, travel, and playtime accessories. After Johnson and Johnson there are not many serious players in baby care market in India as the sector is too fragmented. However, people will be ready to pay a premium as long as the products from emerging companies are significantly differentiated.

Piramal Enterprises entered the over-the-counter (OTC) market with the acquisition of Saridon from Roche Holding AG and Lacto Calamine from Duphar Interfran Ltd in the early 1990s. They were followed by joint ventures with Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc. and Boosts Plc. to get their OTC range to India in 1990s itself. It was only in 2007 that Piramal decided to establish its own consumer products division.

The Little Brand is available at chemists, cosmetics and kids stores, modern trade and e-commerce formats. Piramal entry into Pharmaceuticals came around 1988 when he acquired Nicholas Laboratories Ltd for Rs. 1.6 Crore at a time when most multinational drug makers were exiting India.

Expedia Acquires HomeAway

Expedia Inc. has agreed to acquire the publicly traded vacation rental service HomeAway and its brands for $3.9 Million in cash and Expedia common stock. This move could ramp up competition with apartment sharing startup AirBnB. Expedia is the world’s largest online travel services company by bookings.

The Austin, Texas based HomeAway was founded back in 2005. The company raised a total of almost $505 Million in five funding rounds before it went public in 2011. HomeAway currently features more than a Million paid vacation rental home listings in 190 countries on its site. The company also owns a portfolio of other rental sites, including VRBO.com and VacationRental.com in the US as well as similar sites in Germany, UK, France, Spain, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand.

It also operates BedandBreakfast.com. This acquisition puts Expedia, which owns sites like Hotels.com, Hotwire.com, Travelocity, Orbitz, and Venera in direct competition with AirBnB. Given AirBnB rapid growth, Expedia probably looked at building its own competing service but decided to use its war chest to acquire HomeAway. Expedia biggest competitor, Priceline Group, doesn’t currently own a dedicated sharing economy travel site, but it’s Booking.com brand is slowly moving into this space.

Exotel acquires Voyce

Exotel, a Bangalore based virtual business telephone company, has acquired Voyce, a company which allows businesses to get real time customer feedback, to strengthen Exotel customer service offerings. Voyce claimed to work with over 20 enterprise hospitality chains in India and was founded in 2014.

Exotel claims over 1,400 clients and 70 employees. In February, Exotel acquired the voice based media startup Croak.it for an undisclosed amount. Exotel said that this acquisition would help it improve its services, adding that it planned to acquire more startups in the voice space. The company also claimed to have set up about 650 call centres since inception. In 2012, Exotel had raised Rs 2.5 crore in its Series A funding from Blume Ventures and Mumbai Angels in return for a 25% stake.

Exotel provides cloud telephony services for small and medium enterprises including virtual phone numbers, IVR Greetings and call routing, call centre set up and cash on delivery verification among others. The company deploys cloud based telephony solutions to replace communication hardware systems, to reduce costs, space requirements and maintenance efforts.

It also offers a virtual dashboard that offers various tools to help businesses manage several areas like sales, marketing, customer support, business intelligence and analytics. Its client includes taxi aggregator Ola, Lifestyle retailer Zivame and bus ticketing firm RedBus.

Activision Blizzard buys Candy Crush Saga Maker

Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard has bought King Digital Entertainment, the creator of mobile smash hit Candy Crush Saga, in a deal worth $5.9 Billion. King Digital Entertainment had built one of the largest networks of players on Facebook and on mobile devices noting that King’s games had 474 Million active users in the third quarter of 2015.

Activision already owns one of the biggest gaming franchises in Call of Duty, in addition to Destiny and huge properties such as World of WarCraft and StarCraft as a result of its merger with Blizzard in 2008. The company’s gaming portfolio grows even bigger with the addition of the biggest name in social gaming. Consumer spending on Candy Crush fell 13 percent year over year in the second quarter of this year.

Activision Blizzard games are played on consoles such as Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation. King floated on the New York Stock Exchange in March last year with a valuation of almost $8 Billion making it the most valuable British business of the tech craze. Candy Crush became wildly popular racking up a billion plays a day on smartphones for the company, based in London West End.

This acquisition clearly demonstrates a new commitment to mobile for Activision as well as the will to diversify their IP Portfolio to a more global female audience. Activision has taken in the past a more reserved approach to mobile, releasing only a handful of titles, like Hearthstone and mainly using mobile apps as side experiences to their PC and console games. In the meantime, global competitors such as EA or Tencent have embraced this new sector.

Quess Corp acquired Randstad India

Quess Corp, an integrated business service provider owned by Thomas Cook India has signed a deal to buy Sri Lankan arm of human resource provider Randstad India for an undisclosed amount. This acquisition of Randstad India Pvt. Ltd will strengthen Quess position as a leading provider of integrated HR solutions across staffing, permanent recruitment, executive search and recruitment process outsourcing.

The acquisition will strengthen Quess position as a leading Pan Asian player serving clients across South Asia, Middle East and South-East Asia. The acquisition is subject to statutory and regulatory approvals. Headquartered in Colombo, Randstad Lanka is one of the top five HR Services providers in Sri Lanka with a workforce of over 400 employees and having several Fortune 500 clients.

Bengaluru based Quess Corp has presence across five segments namely, global technology solutions, industrial asset management, integrated facilities management, people, services and logistics, and growth businesses group. It has pursued an aggressive acquisitions strategy, buying around 10 companies across different geographies and businesses for an estimated Rs 200 crore in the last five years.

In June this year, it acquired a 49 percent stake in Transfield Services WLL, which operates in the oil & gas market in Qatar and the Indian facility management business of American multinational Aramark, which operates in hospitality and healthcare facility management. Other companies that it acquired includes Canada based staffing firm Brainhunter Companies.

HCL Technologies Acquires PowerObjects

HCL Technologies has acquired PowerObjects, a US based provider of Microsoft Dynamics Customer resource management solution, for $46 Million, to bolster its offerings in the applications development space. Together HCL and Power Objects will now offer one of the largest Microsoft Dynamic Practices in North America.

Based in Minneapolis, PowerObjects has more than 250 employees who will now be transferred to the rolls of HCL. The total consideration for the transaction includes contingent payments which are subject to certain financial milestones. The existing leadership team of PowerObjects will remain in place and no workforce changes are planned.

HCL has been on an acquisition spree of mostly small companies. PowerObjects is the fourth company it has bought this year. This week, HCL would buy Swedish automaker Volvo Group’s External IT business, which provides IT Infrastructure, mainframe services and application operation services, for an all-cash payment of $138 Million.

Microsoft Dynamics is one of the fastest growing CRM products. Research firm Gartner expects CRM to become a $36 Billion Worldwide market by 2017 growing at an annual rate of 13.3% since 2014. It is projected to grow faster than any other enterprise software category, as businesses look to build upon term customer relationships.

Hindustan Coca-Cola acquires Georgia Tea & Coffee

Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd, the bottling arm of American beverages company The Coca-Cola Co has acquired the Georgia Tea and Coffee Business from Coca-Cola India Pvt. Ltd. The manufacturing and distribution of Georgia will be handled across the country by Hindustan Coca-Cola.

Georgia offers a range of premium hot and cold beverages, including fresh brew coffee, hot pre-mix flavored tea, coffee, iced tea and coffee, through its vending machines. In India, it has already deployed about 5000 machines in the past decade. Fast Food Restaurant chain McDonald’s is one of Georgia largest customers in India.

With the transition of Georgia to HCCB, the company has now evolved to be a one stop beverage solutions provider offering the entire flavor range in sparkling juice, tea, coffee, and still categories to end consumers. Currently, the Georgia pre-mix is being manufactured at the Hershey India in Bhopal, which is the co-packer facility of HCCB.

The brand is more than a decade old in India with close to 5000 machines deployed around the country. It has partners, including McDonald’s, besides Cinema Halls and Multiplexes as well as key corporate offices.

Grofers Acquires Townrush

Hyperlocal delivery startup Grofers has bought business-to-business logistics service provider Townrush, closing its second acquisition within a week. Earlier this week, Gurgaon based Grofers had acquired SpoonJoy. Both acquisitions are essentially acqui-hires where a company is bought for the team instead of its existing business.

Founded in May this year, Townrush had raised an undisclosed amount in a seed round from Lightspeed Venture Partners. Grofers is one of the most well capitalized start-ups in the Hyperlocal delivery segment, having raised $45 Million from Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global Management. Grofers is making these acquisitions primarily for the teams with no significant cash or equity being exchanged.

Townrush closed down in six months. The company used to compete with Roadrunnr, Parcelled, Shadowfax, and Grab, among others. At least 20 such start-ups have emerged in the last 10 months, making it an overcrowded space. However, only Roadrunnr and Shadowfax have raised any significant capital, mopping up $11 Million and $8.5 Million.

Hyperlocal delivery saw a huge amount of ventures spring up this year but many have found it difficult to raise follow on capital. The unit economics in the delivery business is a big challenge. In 2015, as many as 290 startups received seed funding, up almost 90% from last year, but follow on rounds have been muted despite the glut in initial rounds.

Grofers to acquire SpoonJoy

Hyperlocal delivery startup Grofers is in talks to buy Bengaluru based SpoonJoy, as the food ordering app struggles to raise money from new and existing investors. Grofers, run by Locodel Solutions Pvt. Ltd, is expected to sign a acqui-hire deal with SpoonJoy. Operations of SpoonJoy will be shut down once the deal is done.

As investor interest starts to ebb in the crowded food ordering sector, the market is expected to see more such consolidation or strategic investments. Since the start of the year, investors have pumped $150 Million into 20 food ordering startups. The acquisition of SpoonJoy is expected to largely to be a stock deal with some component of cash being involved.

About 40 people from SpoonJoy are expected to join Grofers in the tech and operations departments. SpoonJoy was launched in July 2014 by IIT graduates. The company is backed by Flipkart co-founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal. In May, the company raised $1 Million in a Series A funding from SAIF Partners.

There are early signs of a slowdown and startups in overcrowded sectors will either fail to get higher valuations in their next rounds or not find fresh funds, leading to cost cuts and consolidation over the next one year. However, Food tech companies will not disappear, given the large markets for home deliveries in large cities.

Citrus Payments acquires Zwitch

Citrus Payments Solutions Pvt. Ltd, which operates an online checkout and payment solution Citrus Pay, has acquired Bengaluru based payment platform Zwitch, run by iZwipe Payment Technologies. Citrus Pay is a fintech company focused on providing simplified payment experience to consumers.

Citrus partners with the airlines, utilities, marketplaces and 6000 other merchants to provide consumer payments and mobile banking services. After raising a Series A round of $2 Million in 2012 from Sequoia, the company grew to grab a $5.5 million Series B round from investors. Two days ago, it raised its Series C round of $25 Million led by Sequoia Capital and Ascent Capital.

The business has taken a stride forward and the recent investor backing pushed the envelope for Citrus Pay consumer business. With more than 15 Million users already using Citrus to transact online, Citrus ventured into the consumer payments space with the Citrus Cube app a personal bill management app that claims to see over 10 Million Transactions in a month.

Zwitch, a full stack payment platform enabling developers accept online and mobile payments, was founded in 2013. It claims to have over 1,000 merchants onboard and records daily transactions of about Rs 10 Lakh. This is the first acquisition by Citrus. Citrus competes with CCAvenue, ibibo group PayU, One97 Paytm Payments, ZaakPay and PayPal. 

Western Digital to buy SanDisk

Western Digital Corp, agreed to buy SanDisk Corp. for about $19 Billion in cash and stock, a deal that positions the disk drive maker for growth in the struggling storage industry. SanDisk was thought to be shopping for a buyer as the semiconductor industry rapidly consolidates and industry watchers had said Western Digital or Micron Technology Inc. would be logical bidders.

Western Digital is facing challenges to its core hard disk drive business, which has been under pressure from the success of sales of Apple Inc. iPad and other tablet computers that store data on flash memory chips rather than on magnetic disks. Those devices have long weighed on the sales growth of consumer laptop computers, which are major users of disk drives. Acquiring SanDisk could be a hedge and a driver of new growth.

The acquisition comes about three weeks after an arm of China Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd. agreed to pay $3.78 Billion for a 15% stake in Western Digital, the latest US tech company to scramble for politically connected Chinese partners amid the difficult business environment. SanDisk had benefited from the explosive growth in demand for products such as smartphones.

But its results have lagged behind recently amid a variety of problems, from product qualification delays to lower than expected sales of enterprise products. The deal is expected to add to earnings within 12 months of closing and it will achieve synergies of $500 Million within 18 months.