Times Internet buys video app MX Player

Times Internet Ltd, the digital business arm of media conglomerate Times Group, is planning to foray into video streaming with the acquisition of South Korea based video platform MX player for Rs 1,000 crore.

The deal marks the biggest acquisition till date by Bennett, Coleman and Company Ltd (BCCL), Times Internet’s parent firm, as a group and reflects its bullish outlook on the digital space. BCCL’s earlier big-ticket overseas acquisition – radio network Virgin Radio in 2008.

The platform will house premium and exclusive content from leading content producers and publishers around the world, which means it, will compete with the likes of Amazon Prime Video, Hotstar and Netflix. MX Player claims that its app, which houses a basic video player, has been installed on 500 million devices worldwide. The video player will continue to support the offline video playback features that are currently available.

MX Player is investing in premium, original, digital-first content, with an emphasis on Hindi and regional production. In its first year, the platform will launch with more than 20 original shows, and over 50,000 hours of premium content across all languages.

Voonik acquires app Dekkoh

Voonik Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which operates the fashion app Voonik had acquired styling and personalization app Dekkoh for an undisclosed amount. Dekkoh connects over 200 stylists to consumers seeking fashion advice. It was designed as a fashion discovery platform that allows users to chat with a stylist and buy clothing and accessories that suits them.

Voonik is built around personalized fashion, to provide every customer a solution and opportunity to be fashionable every day. Dekkoh platform is doing the same through an engaged community of stylists and a highly data driven profiling and chatbots. In June, the Bengaluru based company also announced the acquisition of three other start-ups in the fashion space – Zohraa, Styl and Picksilk to enter the premium e-commerce segment.

Before these, Voonik also acqui-hired Trialkart, Getsy and a team from apparel rental start-up Klozee. Voonik runs a lean marketplace business where it operates without inventory and fulfillment centres. It claims to have more than 12 Million registered users, with 10 Million app downloads. On the supply side, it has more than 15 Million products from more than 20,000 sellers.

The company last raised $20 Million in Series B funding led by Sequoia India, Times Internet, Seedfund, Beenos, Beenext, Parkwood Bespin, Tancom Investments and Freecharge.

Times Internet to acquire Willow TV

Times Internet Ltd, the digital arm of the Times Group, had reached a definitive agreement to acquire Willow TV International, a leading cricket broadcaster in US. Willow is one of the fastest growing sports network in the US, featuring popular cricket matches and events. TIL, has committed $100 Million to the purchase of Willow as its primary investment into the business, namely right acquisitions and marketing.

Named after the English willow tree from which crickets bats are made, Willow is the only channel in the US that is dedicated to cricket. The television channel has an aligned digital service at www.willow.tv. Both the TV channel and its digital service are widely distributed by satellite, cable, Internet Protocol Television and OTT platform in the US.

TIL, the digital network of Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd, owns and operates media and technology assets across news, music, and sports, and claims to reach more than 140 Million users each month. For TIL, Willow complements the existing audience of cricbuzz.com, a property that the company acquired in November 2014. Last year, during the ICC World Cup 2015, cricbuzz saw more than one billion visits in a span of 40 days with 96% of these on mobile.

Cricket is one of the fastest growing sports in the US, and the second most popular sport in the world behind soccer. In the last few years, cricket popularity has increased with the addition of the newer shorter Twenty20 format. Willow will provide a live US television broadcast and live streaming of the ICC World Twenty20 the world’s premier Twenty20 cricket tournament.

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.

Times Internet acquires Moneysights

Moneysights founded in 2009, by ex employees of InMobi, Mukesh Kalra, and Santosh Nalvani, was a digital platform where one could buy and manage investments products. In 2012, however, the platform had to close its operations due to lack of funding. Moneysights had earlier raised funds in June 2011 and Times Internet now buys it.

Times Internet is a unit of Bennett and Coleman and Co Ltd. was established in 1999 and operates a portfolio of web and mobile properties that engage millions of users globally. It is currently not clear whether Times Internet plans to revive Moneysights as a separate service or integrate the service to its existing properties like The Economic Times. It is not clear that whether Times Internet plans to keep Moneysights branding.

Moneysights will compete with Aditya Birla group MyUniverse that has a tie up with Network 18 financial information portal Money Control. Online insurance policy aggregator Policybazaar had also launched a financial advisory services platform called Paisabazaar in August this year. The platform sells loans, credit cards, and mutual funds among others.

In previous acquisitions, Times Internet had acquired a majority stake in coupon marketplace CouponDunia in May this year and had merged its deals site with TimesDeal with the company. It had also acquired restaurant-booking service DineOut in April this year. This was after TimesCity had tied-up with DineOut last year to offer table-booking service. it had also acquired Musicfellas.com an online market place for independent artists to sell their songs in February this year.

Times Internet had also invested in shorts, a mobile app for short top stories. It had also funded GradeStack, an online course for students. It also backed Skift.com, a New York based travel intelligence and information portal. Times Internet is a part of The Times of India Group.