BENGALURU: Food delivery platform Zomato on Sunday said that it is in talks with Paytm to acquire the financial technology company’s movies and events business.
According to reports, the deal is pegged at over Rs 1,600 crore. Recently, Zomato said that it will be investing Rs 100 crore in its entertainment business.
In a regulatory filing, Zomato said while it is in discussions with Paytm, no binding decision has been taken yet. “We acknowledge that we are in discussions with Paytm for the aforementioned transaction, however, no binding decision has been taken at this stage that would warrant a board approval and subsequent disclosure in accordance with applicable law,” Zomato said.
The company’s filing was clarifying on reports that it was in talks to acquire Paytm’s movies and ticketing business. “The above discussion is being undertaken with an intent to further strengthen our going-out business and is in line with our stated position of focusing only on our four key businesses currently,” it added in the filing.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma during the analyst call post Q4 results had said that “We are looking at our cost structures or the business line items so that we can prune our non-core assets and we can create a leaner organisation focused on profitability.”
He added that Paytm has done a good job of integrating, creating merchant opportunities where it offers advertising, marketing, APIs-led structure where there is consumer ticketing, travel, etc. “We are not losing focus and sight from our core which is payment cross sell financial services,” he added.