Infibeam Avenues set to acquire majority Stake in Rediff.com
In an effort to expand its consumer-facing business, payments solution provider Infibeam Avenues announced on Friday that it would acquire a 54% stake in news website Rediff.com India.
The payment gateway operator CCAvenue, based in Gandhinagar, will acquire the stake for Rs 50 crore, which will be split equally between equity and debt. Rediff has around 55 million monthly visitors on its site, and north of 5,000 organizations utilize its email administrations. The fintech company will be able to cross-sell financial services like loans, insurance, and investment products because the acquisition will provide Infibeam Avenues with insights into user behavior, preferences, and spending patterns.
Since Rediff.com was the first Indian internet company to be listed on Nasdaq in 2000, this is a significant development in the digital space in India. The internet company that offered email, news, and e-commerce services was valued at $300 million to $500 million in 2000, just as Rediff.com was about to be listed. In 2016, the company was removed from Nasdaq.
In fiscal year 24, Rediff made Rs 36 crore in revenue. The news website's cloud-based enterprise email storage, instant messaging platform, and ecommerce services will help the company, which has its headquarters in Gandhinagar, expand its payment aggregator business.
Vishal Mehta, Chairman and Managing Director, Infibeam Avenues says, “We have publicly said that we are getting into the financial distribution and cloud services with this particular synergy. This particular acquisition is more about cloud services and the value-added services of financial distributions”.
He added, “We believe that the value of these services should account for 2 to 4 per cent of our revenues for this year. We would like to take it up to at least 8-10 per cent in coming quarters”.
Ajit Balakrishnan, Chairman and CEO, Rediff.com says, “I am delighted to pass on this iconic brand and its legacy into the capable hands of Vishal Mehta, Infibeam Avenues. I strongly believe that the new avatar of Rediff under his leadership will further strengthen the company and accelerate business growth”.
