Despite Live Current Media‘s earlier misgivings about diluting its share capital in its joint venture with Dubai-based NetlinkBlue Holdings – Global Cricket Ventures (GCV) – the company has entered into an agreement with VC fund Elephant Capital that will result in Elephant Capital owning a whopping 50% equity in GCV.
LCM had 50.5% stake but had to give 6% to the broker for the joint venture; all voting rights associated with the shares are still with LCM; NetlinkBlue has the rest. The Mauritius based GCV was set up in June, 2008 and owns the domain Cricket.com, which it acquired from LCM for $1.75 million. It also runs the two official sites Iplt20.com and Clt20.com. GCV owns some digital and mobile rights for the Indian Premier League (IPL) and Champions League Twenty20. It is now raising $10 million from Elephant Capital via Tusk Investments Fund 1. (From VCCircle.)
GCV plans to raise another $5 million in its next round of funding (Series-B) and hopes to weaken Elephant’s grip on it by buying back shares. Elephant Capital is listed on the London stock exchange (AIM) and was previously named Promethean India plc. It has invested in Nokia-owned m-commerce firm Obopay and NIIT Ltd, which it exited in June, 2009.
LCM’s Recovers Financial Ground
After suffering seven quarters of losses and significant funding issues last year, Live Current Media restructured its businesses with GCV, raised $2 million for the payout of the Indian Premiere League and to pull up its other Perfume.com business into “more than just another discount perfume site,” as its CEO Geoffrey Hampson put it. It decided to sell six non-core domain names such as Brazil.com, Vietnam.com, Indonesia.com, Malaysia.com, GreatBritain.com and Communicate.com, to raise some quick capital for short term needs. They were expected to garner some $6-10 million. It managed to sell four for $1.11 million.
LCM recently announced a quarterly profit of $703,000 on quarterly revenues of $1.757 million. Looks like its restructuring and exit from the world of cricket has done it good. Now the question is, how will GCV perform? With increasing online piracy levels and live streaming of matches on websites, rights owners such as GCV may stand to lose out heavily on revenues. Is the $10 million a buffer in preparation of such a situation?
Related
– BCCI & Media Coalition Reach Agreement; Syndication For Editorial Use Allowed
– IPL Portal Rights Deal Negotiated Down From $49 Million To $20.75 Million
– In Dire Straits, Live Current Media Raises $2 Million; No MG for CLT20
