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Tag: Ritu Kapur

  • Raghav Bahl to experiment with personalised news on hand held devices

    Raghav Bahl to experiment with personalised news on hand held devices

    MUMBAI: The media industry had received a jolt when veteran and founder of one of the largest and most successful media companies in India, Raghav Bahl announced that petrochemical giant Reliance Industries would be taking over Network 18.

     

    Bahl who is now the non executive director on the board of Network 18 decided to sell off his business after building it with an investment of only Rs 50,000. However, Bahl who is now in his 50s told Mint that ‘50s is the new 30s’. Indeed, his two decade long journey with News is set to continue even now.

     

    While the world moves to digital, he won’t be far behind. Bahl has made public his intention to venture into the digital space with news. Although he hasn’t officially announced his exact venture, his tweets give some clue.

     

    “It shall be a venture in the exciting new world of hand held digital content,” he tweeted in reply to someone’s query. This new venture will also be in the field of his most beloved News genre.

     

    Currently, Bahl and his wife Ritu Kapur are touring the US for ‘digital news discovery through Big Apply and Silicon Valley’ as his tweet says.

     

    ‘Eight weeks after Network 18, I have met more exciting, creative, ambitious digital savvy young professionals than over all of last decade! Eight weeks of start-up nitty gritty, hunting offices and fresh talent, learning digital products – like early 90s TV18!’ he tweets enthusiastically from the US.

     

    ‘The printing press of the 21st century is the publishing algorithm of a mobile news app! Lessons from America,’ he tweeted.

     

    It seems like Bahl is out to create the next Twitter-like news channel to provide personalised news on phones and tabs.

     

  • Raghav Bahl to continue as non exec director at Network18 group

    Raghav Bahl to continue as non exec director at Network18 group

    MUMBAI: After Reliance Industries acquired Network18, a slew of resignations followed. And amongst those was also the network’s founder and promoter Raghav Bahl. While there were questions on what was next, the much awaited announcement is finally out. Though Bahl ends his term as promoter from today, 7 July, he will continue to be the non executive director on TV18’s board.  He has also resigned as managing director of Network18, though he will continue as its non-executive director.

     

    This apart, the old promoters including Bahl, Ritu Kapur, Vandana Malik and Subhash Bahl, along with their affiliates have been replaced by Independent Media Trust (IMT), Network18 Media and Investments, Reliance Industries, RB Mediasoft, RB Media Holdings, RRB Mediasoft, Colorful Media, Adventure Marketing, Watermark Infratech and RB Holdings. The company announced this after a board meeting held this morning. And all of them have resigned from the board as well, along with the  co-founder and executive director of TV 18 Sanjay Ray Chaudhuri.

     

    In another announcement that followed, Reliance Industries revealed that Independent Media Trust (IMT) of which RIL is the sole beneficiary, has completed the acquisition of Network18 Media and Investments (NW18) including its subsidiary TV18 Broadcast (TV18).  With the completion of this transaction, IMT and RIL have become promoters of NW18 and TV18. The open offers to the public shareholders for acquisition of equity shares of NW18, TV18 and Infomedia Press as announced on 29 May by JMT are in process and the draft letter of offer has been filed with SEBI for its comments.

     

    The company also stated in a notice to the Bombay stock exchange that the Network18 board has been reconsituted with the appointment of veteran journalist  Rohit Bansal and founder and group chairman of Webduniya Vinay Chhajlani as non-executive directors, and  HDFC chairman  Deepak S Parekh and Adil Zainulbhai as independent directors, following the resignation of the promoter directors.

     

  • Network18’s Raghav Bahl’s goodbye email

    Network18’s Raghav Bahl’s goodbye email

    MUMBAI: Even as Reliance Industries and Mukesh Ambani cruise on their path to acquire control of the Network18 group, promoter and founder Raghav Bahl – along with his wife Ritu Kapur – sent out an email  to the entire staff of the group explaining their position and their departure from the enterprise they built up.  

     

    The email is pretty candid and begins with them stating that “yesterday, Ritu and I effectively ended our entrepreneurial leadership of N18 by agreeing to exit our shareholding (although I would be around to ensure a smooth transition).”

    Bahl exudes confidence in Mukesh Ambani and RIL as the potential owners of the Network18 group. “Believe us, the Group is in terrific hands. Mr Ambani is a visionary and truly good human being. And we have no doubt that Network18 would soar into the “cloud” under this dispensation. All of you have very good cause to be excited and optimistic about the future,” he says in the email.

    The husband wife team then go on to thank the thousands of team mates “whose collective tejasvi karma has buoyed N18 to where it is today. Our heartfelt gratitude towards all of them! (We would like to make a special mention of our very own Vandana, who was the first manager-cum-driver-cum-lights”man” of TV18 in the early 90s).” (The reference is to his sister Vandana Mallick who was like the rock of gibraltar for Bahl through his career and who resigned from the group earlier in the day today).

    They end by asking the entire employees of the Network18 group to “wish us well as we embark on our next quest – we are, as usual, utterly positive about the future. God bless you, and God bless Network18.”