Times Internet Ltd, the digital arm of BCCL (parent of The Times of India and a host of other news properties), has acquired cricket news and information portal Cricbuzz.com from Bangalore-based Akuate Internet Services Pvt Ltd.
Post acquisition, Cricbuzz will be merged with Times Internet’s cricket news portal GoCricket.
“We are always looking for great businesses that will scale meaningfully in a mobile-first world. Despite being a startup, Cricbuzz has been a thriving, growing business with significant scale. In combination with the resources of GoCricket, we want to build a great cricket franchise to capitalise on the growing interest in India’s favourite sport across mobile devices,†said Satyan Gajwani, CEO of Times Internet.
Founded by Pankaj Chhaparwal, Piyush Agrawal and Pravin Hegde, Cricbuzz.com was started as a provider of ball-by-ball commentary for major cricket matches in the world. The portal now live streams various international matches along with commentary, and also develops its own content and with features, write-ups and up-to-date news from around the cricketing world.
"Given Times Internet’s leadership in digital, this will be a tremendous boost towards scaling up the userbase and offering unparalleled cricket content to Cricbuzz consumers," said Cricbuzz CEO Pankaj Chhaparwal.
Times Internet recently acquired Bangalore-based Rupee Street Financial Services Pvt Ltd, the company behind the online personal finance platform Moneysights which was shut down in September 2012. Other recent acquisitions by Times Internet include CouponDunia, DineOut and MusicFellas.
