Having exited Network18, and with apparently no non-compete clauses Raghav Bahl is looking to start an online news business. While Bahl is no stranger to taking risks, the Internet is a completely different beast because of no barriers to entry, free distribution (hi Airtel) and the kind of fragmentation that is a nightmare for most media publishers. Like I had mentioned earlier, profits for most Internet publishers are a distant dream, but Bahl has built media businesses at scale, through partnerships, and raising money via debt and equity. I think he should buy VCCircle (Mosaic Media Ventures) for the following reasons: 1. It's in a familiar domain: Bahl launched TV18 in partnership with CNBC, and business news is a segment that he is familiar with. For Network18, Moneycontrol.com, it's financial news portal, has been a cash cow. VCCircle doesn't cover the stock markets, and focuses on areas of interest to institutional investors, and venture capital and PE funds. However, it does have breadth when it comes to business coverage - covering Pharmaceuticals, IT, Media and distribution, Technology, Education, Banking, Retail, Healthcare, Real Estate, among others. Add stock market coverage to it to bring in a new audience base, and with the right sales team, it's ready for monetization. So far I haven't seen many advertisements on VCCircle, but they appear to be picking up now. 2. It's a well rounded business, in terms of revenue streams: - A subscription model: VCCircle was the first among our peers to launch a subscription based model, and…
