ZEE Media Corp. Ltd is about to acquire 80% stakes in two India Today companies- Today Merchandise Pvt Ltd (TMPL) and Today Retail Network Pvt Ltd (TRNL), as per the latest report.
These two companies run together an online portal called Bagittoday.com and a television shopping channel which is yet to launch.
“TV shopping with its promising potential holds great investment value for the company. With its investment in the target companies which have built the infrastructure for the TV shopping channel along with a complementing website, the company will be able to not only shorten the launching time of the TV shopping channel but also be able to scale up a faster pace,” the company said in a statement.
TMPL and TRNL, the subsidiaries of Living Media India Ltd which owns the India Today Group of publications, in FY 2014-15 posted a turnover of about Rs 3.84 crore and Rs 37.36 crore respectively.
The investment in the company will be made in tranches. By June 2016, Zee Media will acquire 49 percent stake in both the companies by investing Rs 39.78 crore by subscribing to equity shares of both companies, and gain managerial and operational control over them.
No doubt for the common masses, who are not so active over the internet, TV Shopping is quite a simpler option left for them. This mode of shopping is much easier to understand and entertains a large audience. There are a number of existing TV shopping companies like HomeShop18, Naaptol etc. in the market that will serve as the competitors. (Source)