The official statement is in, confirming that 9.9 Mediaworx has acquired Jasubhai Digital Media, the media arm of the Jasubhai group. The company will now be called 9.9 Digital Media. Dr. Pramath Raj Sinha, founder and Managing Director of 9.9 Media has taken over as the Managing Director of 9.9 Digital Media. I spoke to Sinha, and he told me that it’s a 100 percent acquisition, and an all stock deal; the Jasubhai Group will hold some stake in 9.9 Digital Media. Sinha says that they’re still assessing the amount of investment they need for scaling up the business…if it’s Rs. 5-10 crores, then that will be met internally.
Distress sale?
Not true. The rumor was probably driven by the fact that the owners had decided to sell. The sale process lasted long: it went on for over a year, and the company was in a little bit of a limbo. This created uncertainty and people left. The team here has done a good job keeping things on course, and we’re quite excited about the prospects of the company. The issue now is of building up, and scaling up.
Organizational changes?
Not required, to be honest. The team at the top is fairly strong. The editorial, sale and marketing…they’ve been there for a while and know the business. We don’t want to lose them, but Jasubhai Digital had some good people who left. We’re now hearing back from some of them who want to return. We’re quite keen on that. The company has roughly 100 people right now. If I look across functions, we need around 10 people in the middle management level. That’s the immediate need…the company couldn’t be leaner right now.
Online and Mobile plans
Earlier Jasubhai wasn’t able to enter the digital space to too great an extent because of a non-compete agreement with a partner. We don’t have such restrictions now. We have very high quality content. Things that we’ll look at are greater integration into the respective community of readers, starting blogs, e-commerce. Jasubhai gives us access to 5 communities of readers. Maybe look at lead generation. But there’s no timeline yet – we have just taken over. But you will see some things in the online space over the next few weeks.
On entering CyberMedia territory
Jasubhai Digital gives us quick assess into 5 different communities. Today these are served in a certain established, passive manner. We’ll be taking a different route – we’re trying to create a community of users. People tend to be afraid to charge for some services, while we believe that people will pay for good content. There’s space for value addition in a different way.
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