3 Mega Acquisitions in last week affects the Internet Space of India

Qihoo 360 buys Opera in $1.2 Billion

Opera Software intends to accept a $1.2 billion acquisition offer from a group of Chinese companies.

The Chinese consortium includes Internet security company Qihoo 360, Internet firm Beijing Kunlun (which invested roughly $93 million into Grindr earlier in the year) and investment group Golden Brick and Yonglian.

According to Opera, the $1.2 billion is a 56 percent premium over Opera's share price during the last 30 trading days.

Despite claiming 350 million users, the company's browser has struggled in the oversaturated Western market. China could be a profitable arena for Opera, in part because Google's Chrome browser does not come preinstalled on Android phones in China like it does elsewhere. In addition, doing business in China without local partners is nigh impossible, but Opera could leverage the networks of Kunlun and Qihoo 360 if the deal goes through.

Snapdeal Buys Freecharge in $400Million

e-commerce marketplace Snapdeal has acquired online recharge platform FreeCharge for an estimated $400 million (Rs 2,400 crore), making it one of the largest deals in the consumer internet space in India.

The deal is said to be 30% in cash and 70% in stock. The transaction was done at a $5 billion valuation for Snapdeal.Snapdeal co-founder and CEO Kunal Bahl said here on Wednesday that the joint entity would create the country's largest mobile commerce platform with over 40 million customers. About half of that comes from FreeCharge.

Flipkart, with which Snapdeal is in fierce competition, has 30 million registered users. Flipkart had acquired online clothing firm Myntra for over $330 million last year.

FreeCharge gives Snapdeal access to a much younger audience. While most Snapdeal customers are in the 25 to 35-years age group, most FreeCharge customers are 18 to 25 years old. The venture, which started in 2010 and whose core strength is mobile phone recharges, is popular with the youth because the segment tends to use small pre-paid packages and FreeCharge offers free coupons of various kinds with every recharge. Bahl said Snapdeal and FreeCharge would be able to cross-sell services on each other's platforms.

OYO Rooms acquires Zo Rooms in all stock deal

Oyo Rooms is close to extending its dominance in the budget hotel market by snapping up its main rival Zo Rooms in an all-stock deal, three people aware of the transaction said.The deal, structured as an asset sale, will give ZoRoom'sseven founders and investors including Tiger Global a combined 7% stake in India's largest budget hotel aggregator. The sale comes after Zo Rooms was unable to raise fresh capital from investors. 

"It is an all asset sale. In the given deal structure, Oyo will not be taking liability of Zo's dues," one person said.The person added that Zo's cash-strapped parent Zostel Hospitality will wind up after the deal and may default on some of its dues to vendors and advertising and branding firms.

Zo's assets include its technology and a network of 11,000 rooms in 1,000 hotels across more than 50 cities and towns in India, which will give Oyo more muscle to hold its place against the new startups and larger online travel companies that have entered the hotel aggregation market.

All seven founders of Zo Rooms — Chouhan, Akhil Malik, Paavan Nanda, Tarun Tiwari, Chetan Singh Chauhan, Abhishek Bhutra and Siddharth Janghu — will exit post the transition. About 40% of Zo's employees will be absorbed by Oyo, a second person said. The deal is likely to be closed in two weeks.