This is not a confirmed news, still in rumor stages, but because Hindustan times has published this news, it needs to be taken note of. According to the news Google and Yahoo are eyeing Rediff, one of the India’s most popular consumer portals. I am actually surprised that this has not happened earlier. Rediff now for sometime has been forefront capturing good market share of Indian Internet Readers.
Here is the excerpt from the news that appeared in Hindustan Times yesterday:
Investment banking sources told Hindustan Times that the management of Nasdaq-listed Rediff was in talks with the global companies for a negotiated takeover deal. Rediff, Google and Yahoo officials could not be immediately reached for their comments. Talk of the deal is emerging in the context of a general worldwide rebound in the Internet business, and India emerging as a hot story in the global economy with strong growth in both telephone penetration and the Internet in urban areas.
There are competitors in the fray other than Google and Yahoo too as per the report.
Other suitors could possibly include AOL (America On Line), a division of Time Warner, which has a strong presence in offshore services from India, but is not a significant player in the market. Microsoft’s MSN portal is also keenly stepping up its presence in the Indian market.
This rumor has also appeared on TechCrunch and they think this as a speculation:
It?s possible that Rediff could be in talks, but speculation that it?s Google or Yahoo that is looking to acquire Rediff is exactly that: speculation, and with no basis in fact. On recent history, Google and Yahoo are actually unlikely suitors; although Rediff?s market cap and therefore rough takeover price of $738.9million would put it into the realms of a Google buy, recent history, particularly with Google would suggest otherwise. Both Google and Yahoo went gun-ho into China with poor results, and of late Google has chosen to partner with existing players as opposed to buying them. Although India isn?t China, both share a similar demography in terms of growth and of being ?foreign? in comparison to traditional Western markets where the Google and Yahoo model has worked well.
This is an interesting news, but let us wait till this rumor turns into reality. There have been far too many rumors that have not materialized earlier !
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Author: Arun Prabhudesai
Arun Prabhudesai is founder / chief editor at trak.in. He jumped the Entrepreneurship bandwagon in early 2008 after a long 13 year stint in I.T Industry. You can follow him on twitter @trakin or get in touch with him at admin-at-trak-dot-in or 91.9822575676.Related posts:
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Rediff does deserve credit. It is one of the oldest indian portals managing to maintain quality and consistency for such a long time. Definitely it will be a great addition for any company (Google or Yahoo!) in making a big stride into the Indian Market.
No doubt about that Rediff deserves all the credit for its growth and direction, however, the only thing is whether Mr. Ajit Balakrishnan will fall for the big bucks and give away his baby that he has nurtured and grown for so long ?
I am unsure about it.