Chinese social networking major Tencent and South African media conglomerate Naspers are restructuring their Indian partnership, in a manner that all from now on, Tencent will operate social businesses in India, while Naspers, through MIH India (Tradus, Gaadi, GoIbibo) will focus on e-commerce. Both parties entered into a fresh set of agreements for their India operations on 10th October 2013. (Hat tip: Jiten Jain) At present, Naspers' India business is operated by MIH India Global, of which Tencent holds 19.9%, while the MIH Group (which is controlled by Naspers) owns 80.1% interest. Naspers' Indian business is broadly categorized into the "Social Network Business" and "eCommerce Business", and following agreements entered into on 10th October 2013, Tencent will own 80.1% of the Social Network Business while MIH will own 19.9%, and MIH will own 80.1% of the e-commerce business, while Tencent will own 19.9%. Tencent's option to acquire 50% (minus one share) in MIH India expired on 17th June 2013. This option was acquired in 2008, when Tencent had announced plans to invest $7.5 million investment in MIH India. MIH India, at that point in time, largely operated largely unsuccessful social networking properties, and following the TenCent deal, launched many Tencent products in India, including mail and messenger, a repurposed QQ browser, and games with virtual currencies. The 2008 agreements - both the shareholder agreement and the agreement that gave Tencent options to buy more stake in MIH - have now been terminated. This restructuring has taken quite some time: we had written about this potential split back in May 2012.…
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