News Corp to invest in Indian internet start-ups

RUPERT Murdoch’s News Corp is planning a series of strategic investments in India’s internet start-ups.

RUPERT Murdoch’s News Corporation is planning a series of strategic investments in India as part of an ambitious international growth plan focused on internet start-ups.

The company’s acquisition of a minority stake in Indian listings portal PropTiger.com for $US30 million ($35m) marks the start of a series of deals in the world’s second most populous country, according to Raju Narisetti, News Corp’s senior vice-president for strategy.

“I don’t want to get too specific but since we are looking at India we are looking at opportunities in different businesses that are aligned with information, data and real estate,” he told The Australian. “Anything where there is a content play that can be coupled with the transaction space.”

Mr Narisetti said News Corp was pursuing small to medium- sized deals with opportunities to leverage a global suite of news, information and entertainment brands to help smaller businesses attain greater scale and bigger brand awareness.

“We are open to looking at opportunities and there’s a willingness to make rational but strategic bets if it makes sense,” he said. “We won’t be irrational. We are not a financial investor and will not be going in looking for an exit. We can support entrepreneurs by taking something that is small and helping to really grow it.”

News Corp last week purchased a 25 per cent shareholding in Elara Technologies, the parent company of Prop­Tiger.com, continuing the company’s aggressive expansion into the digital real estate market.

The deal negotiated by Mr Narisetti, a former editor of The Wall Street Journal Europe and former managing editor of The Washington Post, marks the “new” News Corp’s first major deal in India.

Although Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox has extensive interests in India, including Star television channels, the separately listed News Corp has a smaller operation in the country encompassing the Dow Jones news wire and book publisher HarperCollins.

In Asia, News Corp has English Premier League app BallBall and a stake in iProperty held by REA Group.

As the founding editor of India’s second-largest business newspaper, Mint, Mr Narisetti knew two of Elara’s founders when they were columnists for his paper.

“I at least knew these guys in terms of who they were. As we did more due diligence it became clear to us from a business fit they stood out,” he said.

“A couple of us have been looking at it for six months now. We identified a bunch of industries and sectors that we think we should take a deeper look at. Given our history with REA Group and a desire to expand our footprint globally, it made a lot of sense.”

The news came after the company finalised a $US950m takeover of Move, the third most-trafficked website network for property listings in the US.

Eighteen months since the creation of the new News, the company is building a global network of investments in property portals as part of an ongoing corporate agenda focused on the twin forces of globalisation and digitalisation and attempting to emulate the success with REA Group, the operator of Australia’s No 1 property website, realestate.com.au, and a key revenue contributor to the new News.

Mr Narisetti also sees a big opportunity to introduce Indian homebuyers to markets where News Corp already has a substantial presence.

“We can provide them with high-end properties, and access to information in countries that Indians want to buy real estate,” he said. “It’s more about providing gateways to listings through REA, iProperty and Move at this stage.”