Business mergers and Acquisition, Startup, Snapdeal - Current Affairs Questions and Answers

ANSWER: Govind Rajan

Explanation:
FreeCharge CEO Govind Rajan has resigned from the company within 9 months of his appointment as payment subsidiary of online marketplace Snapdeal.

Snapdeal, run by Jasper Infotech Pvt Ltd, has been trying to independently raise funds for FreeCharge but the company has struggled to attract investors in the past six to 10 months.

FreeCharge, which provides digital payments services, was acquired by Snapdeal for $450 million in April 2015 and appointed Rajan as the chief executive in May 2016.

Govind has brought incredible energy and focus in growing FreeCharge. The pace of progress will continue with the strong team that he has built.

Jason Kothari will oversee the business operations of FreeCharge as part of his overall responsibilities of portfolio management as the chief strategy and investment officer of Snapdeal.

Rajan was initially hired as the chief strategy officer of Snapdeal, prior to which he was at Bharti Airtel Ltd as its chief marketing officer and chief executive of Airtel Money.

He also worked at Hindustan Unilever Ltd for over 15 years.

Numerous high-level exits at Snapdeal, include Sandeep Komaravelly, head of peer-to-peer marketplace Shopo; Tony Navin, head of partnerships and strategic investments; and Abhishek Kumar, head of corporate development, mergers and acquisitions and investments.

Backed by Japan’s Softbank Group, which holds close to 33% in the company, Snapdeal has also received funding from Kalaari Capital.

Other funders are Nexus Venture Partners, eBay Inc., Foxconn Technology Group and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

Co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal now have a stake of less than 6.5% in the company, which has raised around $2 billion since its inception.

ANSWER: Jason Kothari

Explanation:
Ex Housing.com CEO Jason Kothari has been appointed the head of the Snapdeal strategy and investment operations.

This is following the merger of the realty portal with PropTiger.

Snapdeal's Chief Strategy and Investment Officer Kothari will work alongside Kunal Bhal and Rohit Bansal in a leading role.

Kothari will join Snapdeal on Jan 16, 2017. Both Housing.com and Snapdeal are backed by SoftBank.

Kothari's responsibilities will include:

• Leading strategy.
• Corporate development, including all investments and strategic partnerships.
• Raising new capital for the company and portfolio management.
• Overseeing companies that Snapdeal wholly owns or has invested in.

Housing.com announced merger with News Corp-backed real estate brokerage firm PropTiger.

The joint entity raised USD 55 million from Real Estate Australia (REA) Group and Softbank.

Before Housing.com, Kothari was CEO and Vice Chairman of character-based entertainment company Valiant Entertainment.

Know More about Snapdeal

• Type of business: Private
• Type of site: E-commerce
• Founded: 2010
• Headquarters: New Delhi, India
• Founders: Kunal Bahl, Rohit Bansal
• Industry: Internet
• Subsidiaries: FreeCharge
• Website: www.snapdeal.com

ANSWER: Vijay Ghadge

Explanation:
Vijay Ghagde has joined the Vulcan Express, a captive logistics unit of Snapdeal as the CEO

• He was earlier the COO of e-commerce logistics company Go-Javas
• Snapdeal holds 42 percent stake in GoJavas.
• It is strengthening its supply chain and logistics capabilities investing INR 240 crore in Go Javas in 2 subsequent rounds in 2015
• GoJavas was the logistics arm of Rocket Internet backed fashion retailer and is the largest logistics partner for Snapdeal

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: Puravankara

Explanation:
Snapdeal, a leading online marketplace and Puravankara, which is among the top-5 listed real estate developers in the country, have announced the launch of a 'Managed Residences Plan' for their customers in association with international property consultancy JLL India.

• The three-way partnership will enable customers to purchase a ready-to- occupy apartment from Puravankara across Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore and Kochi and lease it back Puravankara for a contracted term of seven years.
• As a part of the contract, Puravankara will secure pre-agreed monthly rentals to the customer and pay the common area maintenance amount to the building association.

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: Anand Chandrasekaran

Explanation:
Snapdeal’s chief product officer Anand Chandrasekaran has quit the company. The news was announced by Snapdeal co-founder Rohit Bansal on his Twitter handle.

• He is expected to start his own company.
• Before joining the e-tailer in June 2015, he was with Bharti Airtel where he led product strategy for music streaming service Wynk and Airtel Money

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.