Cyber Media India has sold BioSpectrum, its B2B media brand focused on the life sciences industry in the Asia-Pacific region, to MM Activ, a trade show company which organized events like Bangalore India Bio, AgroVision, Nutra India summit, Indian Science Congress Expo, among others. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but MM Activ has acquired the publishing rights, title and the brand and business of BioSpectrum. BioSpectrum is a magazine which covers Bio Pharma, Bio Agriculture, Bio Informatics, Bio Industrial, Bio Suppliers and Bio Services, and includes two websites –  BioSpectrum India and BioSpectrum Asia.

The announcement quotes Pradeep Gupta, CMD of CyberMedia as saying that the deal is a part of realignment at CyberMedia to focus on its core areas.

CyberMedia’s media business has been struggling: it reported a loss before tax of Rs 9.46 lakh for the quarter ended 30th June 2013 (Q1-FY14), from Rs 18.40 lakh profit in the same quarter last year. The total media revenues declined to Rs 7.34 crore for the quarter, down 36% from Rs 11.5 crore in Q1-FY13. The previous sequential quarter (Q4-FY13, ending 31st March 2013) had also been a loss making quarter for CyberMedia’s media business – a loss before tax of Rs 2.1 crore for the quarter, down from Rs 1.05 crore profit in the same quarter the previous year. The total revenues declined to Rs 7.53 crore for the quarter, down 33.54% from Rs 11.33 crore in Q4-FY12.

On a yearly basis, the media business saw a decline in the profit before tax to Rs 0.90 crore for FY13, down 68.4% from Rs 2.85 crore profit in FY12. The total revenues also declined marginally to Rs 42.1 crore for the year FY13, down 10.81% from Rs 47.2 crore in FY12. The media business accounted for 58.8% of CyberMedia’s total revenues in FY13.

Rationalizing Magazine Businesses?

We went through the websites of CyberMedia publications, and noticed that:

– LivingDigital is no longer online

– Tech Review India now redirects to TechnologyReview.com. This was a brand that CyberMedia had licensed from MIT Technology Review, so it’s possible that the license hasn’t been renewed.

– Dare magazine was last updated on May 17 2013 (this article), we noticed when we checked the website on Friday. Today, the website is down.

We wrote to Gupta for a clarification on the status of these three publications, but got neither a confirmation, nor a denial. We will update in case we get more info later.

Other Cybermedia publications include PCQuest, DQIndia, Voice&Data, CIOL, DQChannels, DQWeek, GlobalServices.

Magazine Businesses: Shut-down’s and Sales

– There are reports that the ABP Group is looking to sell Businessworld by the end of 2013
– Spenta Multimedia acquired a majority stake in MW and Rolling Stone India in August 2013.

– Outlook pulled the plug on three of its licensed international titles – People, Geo and Marie Claire in July 2013.

– Luxury Fashion magazine Atelier and Women magazine Atelier Diva shut down in June 2013, as per a First Post report.

– Not a magazine, but in some ways playing in the same space, the Times of India group had shut down Crest, a Saturday edition it ran, in July 2013.

– Burda acquired Exposure Media Marketing, which publishes Indian editions of AsiaSpa, Millionaire Asia, Asia-Pacific Boating, Selling World Travel, Designer Mode and Audi magazine in June 2013.

– Delhi Press, publishers of The Caravan, acquired Business Standard’s Motoring in April 2013. It was also in talks with the lifestyle magazine MW but the deal fell through.

Also read: On The State Of The Magazine Industry In India; Outlook Shuts Three Magazines

Disclosure: Some of Cybermedia’s publications may have areas of overlap with MediaNama.