After Alibaba Group, Tencent, yet another Chinese giant wants to invest in This time it is China’s biggest Internet search company, Baidu, which is seeking to acquire a majority stake in
Whereas, the owner and operator of Mydala.com, Kinobeo Software, is looking at a valuation of $150-200 million.
Reportedly, Malaysia’s Khazanah Nasional Berhad also wants a majority stake in Mydala and this will be second in India's consumer internet sector. Khazanah participated in Rs 250-crore funding round in Zivame.
Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Lee told a TV news channel that India and Indonesia had a lot of characteristics that mimic China's development.
A Baidu spokesperson told ET, "Of course, strategic investments or M&As that will help us round out our local user base and form a solid foundation for our products are a definite possibility in the future. We absolutely plan to be in India for the long term."
Baidu, which has a market capitalisation of $69.2 billion, has launched four mobile products in the country and claimed in September that it had 45 million aggregate monthly active users in India.
Presently, Info Edge owns about 44% of Mydala and majority of the remaining is with the founders and employees.
"Baidu has been looking at (the discount couponing) space in India for some time now. They are attracted to the high number of users, especially in the classifieds space that cater to the small and medium enterprises," Kunal Walia, managing partner of boutique investment bank Khetal Advisors, told ET.
Mydala offers deals in 209 cities and has about 28 million customers.
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