Television Eighteen Group''s internet arm acquires three internet companies

23 August 2006

Television Eighteen India Group's, internet arm, Web18, has 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.

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.