Business mergers and Acquisition, FreeCharge - Current Affairs Questions and Answers

ANSWER: Ankit Khanna

Explanation:
FreeCharge on March 22, 2017 announced promotion of Ankit Khanna to Chief Operating Officer of the company.

Ankit will be managing product, user growth, user experience and business development at Freecharge.

Before taking charge as the COO, Ankit was the Chief Product Officer with the company.

Prior to this, he was the Senior Vice President, Product at Snapdeal and has been with Snapdeal since the company's inception in 2010, where he joined as the Product head.

Ankit holds a Bachelors in technology degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

Before joining Snapdeal, Ankit also co-founded Itasveer in 2006, an online solution for photo printing which was later acquired by a Pune based IT Services company.

FreeCharge: Know More

• Status: Acquired by Snapdeal on April 8, 2015
• Total Equity Funding: $174.22M in 5 Rounds from 6 Investors
• Headquarters: Mumbai
• Description: FreeCharge is a service that gives users coupons for charging their mobile plans.
• Founders: Sandeep Tandon, Kunal Shah
• Categories: Internet, Coupons, Payments
• Website: https://www.freecharge.in

ANSWER: Jason Kothari

Explanation:
Snapdeal has appointed former online real estate portal Housing.com executive Jason Kothari to the position of Chief Executive Officer of its digital payments subsidiary Freecharge.

It is also committing to invest a further $20 million into the firm.

Kothari’s appointment to the role comes a month after former Freecharge CEO Govind Rajan quit the company.

This is amid growing concerns of Freecharge losing out to larger rival Paytm in India’s fast growing digital payments space.

FreeCharge

• Owner : Snapdeal
• Founded : August 2010
• Founder : Kunal Shah , Sandeep Tandon
• Headquarters : Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

ANSWER: Shuttl

Explanation:
Freecharge, a digital payment platform on 14th July 2016 announced the partnership with bus aggregator platform Shuttle to help 15,000 commuters in Delhi-NCR engage in cashless commuting

ANSWER: None of the above

Explanation:
NYSE listed technology firm Synnex Corporation has acquired Bengaluru based BPO firm Minacs for USD 420 million in a deal underlining consolidation in the business process management space.

• Buyout also showcases the efforts in the BPM sector to gravitate towards higher end services and capabilities like analytics
• PE firms CX Partners and Capital Square Partners which purchased Minaca from the Aditya Birla Group are exiting the firm.
• This acquisition is Synnex’s second biggest in India.
• In 2013, it had acquired BPO firm IBM Daksh for USD 505 million.

ANSWER: Forever 21

Explanation:
Kumar Mangalam Birla led Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail has acquired Indian business of international clothing brand “Forever 21” from Diana Retail Pvt Ltd, the US based company’s local franchise partner for over INR 175 crore or USD 26 million.

• Transaction involved acquisition of the Forever 21 Undertaking of Diana Retail from July 1 through business transfer agreement and not share transfer.
• Consideration for acquisition is USD 26 million
• Forever 21 will form part of the Madura Fashion & Lifestyle division
• Forever 21 is among the fastest growing fashion retailers in the world with a network of more than 700 stores worldwide.

ANSWER: HelloTech

Explanation:
Los Angeles-based startup HelloTech and rival in-home tech support company Geekatoo said that they had merged, in a sign of consolidation in the hotly competitive on-demand sector.

• HelloTech will combine its network of about 150 college students who provide on-demand tech repair to Southern California consumers with Geekatoo's US network of about 5,000 technicians, the companies said in a joint statement.
• The merger connects HelloTech with Geekatoo's national market and provides Geekatoo with more access to venture capital funding, HelloTech co-founder Richard Wolpert said in an interview.
• HelloTech, which launched about a year ago, has raised $17 million from investors, while 5-year-old Geekatoo has raised close to $3 million.

ANSWER: Knowlarity Communications

Explanation:
Cloud telephony company Knowlarity Communications on May 9th 2016 acquired Delhi based Smartwards, a customer engagement platform that simplifies loyalty for local businesses and their consumers

• As per the statement, Shantanu Mathur and Dhanraj Singh Bisht- co founders of Smartwards will lead the Indian operations for Knowlarity
• Smartwards started operation in 2013

ANSWER: Volob Technologies

Explanation:
GirnarSoft, the parent company of auto classifieds portal CarDekho.com, has acquired virtual reality startup Volob Technologies in an all-cash deal, the company announced on May 3rd.

• This is the eight such transaction entered into by GirnarSoft, which has emerged as one of the most active players in the Indian startup M&A leaderboard over the past 18 months, and comes less than a week after it announced its acquisition of SaaS startup Connecto.
• Founded in 2010 by Tarun Kumar and Shweta Jain, Volob Technologies provides 3D visualisation solutions to various industries, primarily automotive, according to a company-issued statement.

ANSWER: Hitachi

Explanation:
The partnership is to provide joint services to global clients and the market. Part of the collaboration involves joint provision of value to clients by Hitachi and Virtusa through increase in operational and technology efficiency and enhancing functionality

• Hitachi provides IT solutions through combination of various products and services internationally.
• Both firms have been working together since 2015.

ANSWER: Magicbricks

Explanation:
Realty portal Magicbricks has acquired property analysis platform Properji for a non disclosed amount and plants to come up with reports for more than 10,000 projects in 6 metros which will help buyers in making the right decision. Magicbricks dot com has acquired Invact Technologies which runs the realty portal. This marks the first acquisition by Magicbricks dot com.