Call it a good or bad deal, it is finalized and RedBus.in, one of the biggest online portals for booking bus tickets in India, has been acquired by South Africa based Naspers group, for a hefty amount of Rs. 800 crore ($138 Million USD). Naspers is a group which runs the large group of iBibo in India and now the acquisition doesn’t raise a lot of questions because this group has been developing the acquired products more than killing them.
The main reason behind the acquisition here could be that iBibo has been taking over well in the travel market in India, and this deal would catch a larger user base, where the bus booking through RedBus is one of the most trusted option, thus this could make it more monopolized in the arena of travel via buses.
According to the details, Phanindra Sama, the CEO of RedBus might no more be the CEO, and the head team would be handled by the Naspers team. We would be getting the press release from either of the products very soon, but as of now the details about the deal are quite right, with the hefty amount being fixed for the acquisition.
RedBus was given the title of being one of the World’s 50 Best Innovative companies in the year 2012, and has been ever growing with most of the private bus services tagging up with the bus booking facility making it easier for the passengers to book their bus travel through the website.
BITS Pilani alumni Phanindra Sama, Sudhakar Pasupunuri and Charan Padmaraju co-founded RedBus seven years ago after Sama struggled to fetch bus tickets from Bangalore to reach home for Diwali in 2006. Today, RedBus is India’s largest bus ticketing platform, issuing 10 million tickets with gross sales nearing $200 million annually. Bangalore-based Pilani Soft Labs, the holding company of Redbus, has existing investors like Helion Venture Partners, SeedFund and Inventus Capital who may exit fully or partly in the latest deal.
RedBus.in Acquired by Naspers Group – INR 800 Crore ($138 Million) – Details