UTV Indiagames to focus on India after Disney buy,success of RA.One

“The integration process is in progress and the deal should be completed in a few months subject to regulatory approvals,” Gondal said,without divulging more details.

Earlier in 2011,Walt Disney had announced the acquisition of UTV Software Communications for

‘2,000 crore. UTV had a 57 per cent-58 per cent stake in Indiagames. The rest 42 per cent was held by founder and promoter,Vishal Gondal,and investors such as Cisco Systems,Adobe and others.

Market sources said that Walt Disney had acquired the other 42 per cent from the investors of Indiagames and Vishal Gondal. The deal is reported to be in the range of $100 million .

Gondal was bullish on the domestic gaming market post the success of RA One. “RA One was first launched on the Ovi store. Then it was also launched on DTH,Iphone,Android,and other mobile platforms. We are still collating the numbers,but the social game platform has clearly worked for us. The Indian film industry and cricket are two major verticals that offer tremendous potential in terms for gaming,” he said.

The company has created games for Delhi Belly and the IPL T20 fever that sold 20 million copies. “We would be looking more closely Bollywood and would try to figure out what could become a mass character,” he said.

Mobile-phones,according to Gondal, presented the biggest potential as they getting smarter and presented an opportunity to the tune of $200 million – $ 300 million. “Television is also another major platform that lends itself to gaming,” he said.

According to a FICCI-KPMG 2010 report,the mobile gaming market is expected to be ‘1,430-crore market by 2014. “Indiagames would continue to grow,” he said and would be adding 300 people to its team. The company has 250 employees and a base of 60,000 users on the demand-subscription model and competes with the likes of Zapak.com and Games2Win. Gondal is also a saviour for startups with investment,mentoring and aid in expansion them scale. “I remember my days as an entrepreneur and this is my way of giving something back to the industry. We have funded three to four ventures,” he said.

People movement

Network18 Group CEO Haresh Chawla quits

Haresh Chawla,group CEO of Network18 has put in his papers. Chawla,who has led Network18 for well over a decade,is currently overseeing a seamless leadership succession plan at the half-a-billion-dollar (in current year’s revenues) media conglomerate spanning news and entertainment broadcasting,web portals,publications,filmed entertainment and ecommerce operations and Viacom18.

Under his stewardship,Network18 grew from a single business news channel (CNBC-TV18) and solitary portal (Moneycontrol.com),with revenues of ’15 crore in 1999,to a truly diversified media group with revenues in excess of ‘2500 crore in 2011.

Rajesh Jejurikar is appointed president of ZEE

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited has appointed Rajesh Jejurikar as its president. He will report to Punit Goenka,MD & CEO,ZEE. Speaking on the appointment,Goenka said,“We welcome

Rajesh to the ZEE family and are confident that his joining will further add to our capability of being a fiercely competitive organisation.”

Jejurikar comes from Mahindra and Mahindra where he was chief executive of the automotive division. “After having spent a fulfilling decade at Mahindra,where I have grown and learned so much,both personally and professionally,I am happy to now be a part of India’s pioneering television broadcasting company ZEE,” he said.