In an all-stock deal, Bangalore-based Webgyor.com Pvt Ltd has bought out the media relations arm of Perfect Relations, a New Delhi-based public relations outfit.
"We have closed the acquisition of the media relations team of 33 people spread across 10 offices in the country," Webgyor chief executive Kenny Ramanand told Business Standard.
Ramanand, however, refused to disclose how much Webgyor stock Perfect Relations has been given in return. He added that he was working on more such deals.
Webgyor has been in the business of online media information management for over 18 months.
According to Ramanand, it provides information to over 3,000 journalists through multiple information mechanisms namely a 6 pm email service , its website, its offline desktop application called Yorinfo and through a toolbar on the browser called the MediaBar.
"It has been our constant endeavor to reach more journalists across the country and provide them information in their preferred choice of format and access device. To extend this we feel that an offline presence would add tremendous value to Webgyor," Ramanand said.
According to Ramanand, in the prevailing market scenario where companies have begun to look at PR costs with a microscope, there is a need for a simple media information service. "This service will ensure that their press information is dispatched and reaches the right journalist at the right time in the right format. The offline reach also ensures that we can reach the media who are not yet connected or not dependent on the Internet," he said.
"The acquisition will bring accountability to what these people (in the Perfect Relations media team) have been up to," Ramanand, who is the promoter of Webgyor, said. At the moment, he is looking after the team, though the company is looking for a cheif executive to head it. "We plan to roll out live by November 1. We are currently dry running the system and in the process of training the media teams across the country in terms of the cultural shift and on the deliverable definition. At the moment we are consolidating as there are cultural differences between an online company and an offline company," Ramanand added.
Webgyor is in three lines of business: media information management services which includes press information distribution service and business intelligence service ( Webis ); creative services including work on new advertising methodologies on the Net , creative branding solutions and animated characters; and technology solutions like offline desktop browsers, instant messaging plug ins, toolbars etc.
