HT Media acquires VCCircle's parent company

HT Media has acquired Mosaic Media Ventures that operates digital media properties VCCircle and Techcircle. Adding to them, Mosaic Media also operates subscription-based research databases, VCCEdge and SalesEdge.

News Corporation (News Corp), an American mass media and publishing company had acquired Mosiac Media Ventures in 2015.

As per the regulatory filing, HT Media's board of directors approved an investment up to Rs 6 crore post-working capital adjustment, and revenue linked milestones payment up to Rs.1 Crore on a deferred basis to acquire 100% of paid-up share capital of Mosaic held by NWS Digital Asia PTE Limited and News Corporation (“Sellers”), subject to finalization of definitive agreements.

HT Media, in its filing, also said it will scale VCCircle and TechCircle to augment Mint’s tech and deals content editorial capabilities and use HT’s reach to augment VC Circle’s events business. Incorporated in 2007, Mosiac Media reported revenue of Rs 14.5 crore for the financial year FY20, compared with Rs 14 crore for FY19.

The acquisition is to be completed by the end of August.

As per a report in VCCircle, "... the transaction is believed to have been triggered by a change in India’s foreign investment norms for digital media businesses announced last year. The move restricted foreign investment in digital news media to 26%, in line with the FDI policy for print news publications. Prior to this rule there was no specific restriction on foreign investment in the digital news media business..."

Earlier this month, RP-Sanjiv Goenka group had picked up a majority stake in Vikram Chandra's news platform, Editorji.