Rediff CEO: Absolutely No Offers Received From Anybody In The Last Year; Mobile Business Blues
By Rafat Ali - Mon 05 Nov 2007 06:06 AM PST
That is pretty sad if true. We reported on Rediff (NSDQ: REDF) Q3 earnings last week, and in the accompanying conference call, CEO Ajit Balakrishnan denied any takeover interest from anyone. From the transcript: “There has been absolutely no offers received from anybody, nor has there been an attempt to reach out to us to discuss a possible offer. As you probably know, we are very familiar with all the players in the market at every level....So, if there was any such rumor or intention, I’m pretty certain that people who head the large international portals would have no problem in asking me directly. And I can categorically say that there has been no discussion whatsoever in the last one year or so.” What does this say about Rediff and the general Internet M&A market in India?
Then, some more details from him on the challenges facing the company’s mobile business, and for the industry in general:
-- “The revenue share in India from the mobile operators is very adverse to the value-added service players like us. The weighted average margin, we get from things we do is probably 18% or 19%. Most markets in the world, it’s upward of 50%. So, that continues to be a dampener.”
-- Then, the change in short-codes in India to five digits: “Well, it’s dampened the whole market, while there’s some degree of confusion, first on what is the code and whether it will be implemented.”
