Turakhia to continue running Media.net

Days after sealing a historic deal, the third largest ad-tech deal ever for $900 million, Media.net founder Divyank Turakhia said that he wants to continue operating the company.

“I would be operating the company for the next several years. We sold the business as far as equity is concerned but I will continue running it, and the plan to continue is primarily because we have had a great first phase of our journey, it’s an amazing business and an incredible opportunity,” Turakhia told DH.

“We can keep growing this further and multiply the business from where it is as it stands today into a much larger business that’s going to be multi billion dollars,” Turakhia added. “I am not looking at anything else apart from Media.net in the foreseeable future,” Turakhia, a serial internet entrepreneur added.

Media.net, a key player in the ad-tech space, announced the closing of its acquisition by a Chinese Consortium from Divyank Turakhia’s Starbuster TMT Investments in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $900 million on August 22. Media.net had revenues of $232 million in 2015.

It currently manages more than $450 million of annual advertising revenue via its platform, more than 50% of which is generated from mobile users. Almost 90% of Media.net’s total revenue comes from the US. With seven offices worldwide, including global headquarters in Dubai, and US headquarters in New York, Media.net has more than 800 employees, up from 650 in 2015.

Turakhia also believes that Media.net could look at entering the Indian market but not in the immediate term. “We don’t have an India play for Media.net at all. India is a growing market but is still a small digital online advertising market, it is mostly Google dominated at this point of time. We will eventually enter it when it will become a large market, but we are not looking at it in the near term,” Turakhia said.

We will come to India but not in the immediate near term. We are not looking at it for another year or two, Turakhia added.