The Johari Family has bought back the business of MaXposure Media Group from Gruner + Jahr (the publishing division of European media conglomerate Bertelsmann) for an undisclosed amount.
Gruner + Jahr had acquired a majority (78.75 per cent) interest in MaXposure back in 2011. The remaining 21.25 per cent was held by the group’s co-founder Prakash Johari.
While the financials of the deal remain undisclosed, it is believed to be around Rs 40 crore ($6.5 million).
Prakash Johari is leading the company as managing director and CEO of MaXposure and would continue to do so, along with his brother Vikas, who heads the creative departments as the publisher and COO.
Talking about his future plans, Prakash Johari said, “We learnt and grew significantly over the last three years under the guidance of Gruner + Jahr. We plan to realign the company’s vision for the next three years under the new majority leadership and continue to expand our leading position in the corporate publishing space in India and enter foreign markets.”
The Johari family started MaXposure in 2006. MaXposure publishes over 30 magazines in the corporate and consumer space and is one of the largest in-flight magazine publisher in the Indian subcontinent with in-flight magazines of Air India, Spicejet and Vistara, the upcoming airlines of Tatas.
It has 11 offices in India (Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Indore, Chandigarh, Raipur and Ahmedabad) with headquarters in New Delhi.
Gruner + Jahr is one of the world’s leading media groups and its Electronic Media Sales (EMS) division is a leader in the digital advertising space in Europe. It offers nearly 500 magazines and digital offerings in over 30 countries.
Early this week, Smile Vun Group (SVG) Media, a joint venture between Manish Vij’s Vun Network and Harish Bahl’s Smile Group, had acquired mobile ad network SeventyNine and digital agency NetworkPlay from Gruner + Jahr.
With the sale of MaXposure, it is now fully exiting the Indian market.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)