GroupM in talks to acquire Foxymoron

GroupM is the world largest advertising media company in terms of billing. It was formed in 2003 by WPP Group to serve as the parent company of WPP media agencies including Maxus, MEC, MediaCom, and Vocanic. It handles over 32% of the world media billings making it the world largest media investment management operation. Foxymoron was started in 2008 as a summer project between four friends and turned into a digital media and marketing company.

Global media firm GroupM is in talks to acquire Foxymoron for about $30 Million, as it seeks to establish dominant position in India. If the deal becomes successful then it will be the latest buyout transaction in the nascent, but fast growing Indian Digital, social media, and marketing sector. Global Media giant JWT is also scouting for potential acquisitions in the space.

Foxymoron provides an across the board range of services, including, end to end digital services, including design and development and social media services. The potential transaction is part of GroupM strategy to establish an even stronger footprint in the country, where it already has a dominant presence. India’s online advertising market is poised to exceed Rs 3500 crore in revenue in 2015.

Spend on video ads will grow at a compounded annual rate of 56% while contributing 12% to the overall market share of digital advertisements. The principal sources of acceleration in 2015 are China, where GroupM predicts ad growth will get back on track to just fewer than 10%, the US, forecast to pick up to 3.9, the Brazil, the UK, Japan and India. Acquisitions have been an important growth strategy for GroupM, which also acquired Chinese Social media agency Teein last year.

DHL to test e-commerce model in India

DHL is a division of the German Logistic company Deutsche Post DHL providing international express mail services. DHL is the world market leader in sea and airmail. It was founded in 1969 to deliver documents between Honolulu and San Francisco. DHL is serving in countries such as Iraq, Iran, China, Vietnam, North Korea, and Soviet Union. Deutsche Post DHL has chosen India to pilot its e-commerce business model for Asia-Pacific region and will invest more than €100 million in country over the next two years to create infrastructure.

Globally, e-retail is rapidly evolving. Over the next five years, the global e-commerce sector is expected to grow by more than 10% per annum. Asian region is expected to surpass North America and Europe as the biggest online market in the world. It is a huge opportunity for DHL to become the world’s largest provider of e-commerce logistics. Over 20 online retailers including Flipkart, Snapdeal, Urban Ladder, Fashionandyou, and LimeRoad have venture capital funds in the past four months. More are in talks to raise funds in the next six months.

Flipkart rising revenues, its acquisition of Myntra, the rise in shopping on smartphones and the change of government centre aided in attracting investors. The hype around the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba has revived hope that if China can come up with large e-commerce businesses, so can India. Online retail is estimated to grow to $22 Billion in five years. DHL is present in 220 countries with 315,000 employees. DHL holds 75% stake in India listed small parcel transportation firm Blue Dart Express.

DHL will start 15 e-fulfillment centres to facilitate e-commerce business in metros including New Delhi, Bangalore, and Mumbai. There are also plans to start such centres in Tier-II and Tier-III cities including Coimbatore and Jaipur. DHL is specialized in providing integrated logistics solutions. DHL and Blue dart are moving away from vanilla transportation to specialized and Integrated Service.