Music company JMD Telefilms has acquired Mumbai-based Bajaao.com for Rs 5 crore and plans to invest a further Rs 25 crore in the business to expand its operations. Bajaao.com is five-year-old internet enterprise that sells music gears including guitars, keyboards, percussion and disco jockeying gear.
Public listed JMD Telefilms said the acquisition is more than just a purchase of catalogues as it is entering the Rs 250-crore music instruments and accessories market. The firm that clocked over 20% growth in net sales for the last two successive years despite facing a tough market due to piracy, expects to accelerate its topline growth during 2011-12 to 30% supported by Bajaao.com.
For the year ended March’10, JMD had revenues of Rs 85 crore with net profit of Rs 1.5 crore.
This is the company’s second acquisition since the beginning of the year. Last month, it acquired Gulf-based Gate FZCO, a digital media agency to sell digital solutions and content in the middle east and Europe. The company had also announced its plans to enter the mobile value added service business.
JMD owns a music studio in Kolkata and besides selling its own content under the brand JMD also rents the studio for recording to other music firms and musicians. It is engaged in Hindi music besides other regional music genres.
It had been striking business deals to protect its core business which faces rampant piracy. During 2009-10, it entered into a 3-year agreement with Chennai-based Onesource Techmedia to give rights to telecast its recorded songs on various television channels for a fee of Rs 50 lakh per annum.
It has also struck a 2-year joint venture with another audio-video production house Shemaroo Entertainment for using its recorded songs as caller tunes and mini DVDs to be used for telephone services and/or voice portal on a revenue sharing basis.