Google Yahoo Eyeing Rediff for takeover

Hindustan times reports that Rediff which is India's largest homegrown portal and ranked 5th overall in India by Alexa is seeing speculation that it is in talks with both google and yahoo for buyout.Both the companies are bullish on India with Google CEO even predicting that India will be world's largest internet market.Rediff has been heavily criticized in the past for trying out too many things and not having a clear focus it tries out too many things at the same time.

Leading US-based investment journal Barrons reported this month that Rediff is seeing speculation that it could be a takeover target. Rediff’s stock has witnessed a sharp jump in share price and volume on Nasdaq over the past week, when it also launched a Website to help consumers upload voice, video and photographic content for free.
The company has a current market capitalisation of $738 million.If the deal comes through, the valuation may be close to a billion US dollars.The Barrons report quoted Ashish Thadani, an analyst at Gilford Securities, as saying that Rediff could fetch more than $ 25 a share in a sale and could see other suitors besides Yahoo and Google
Other suitors could possibly include AOL (America On Line), a division of Time Warner, which has a strong presence in offshore services from India, but is not a significant player in the market. Microsoft's MSN portal is also keenly stepping up its presence in the Indian market.

Meanwhile Rediff CEO seems keen on a new startup in India Alarmclock  reports that from Linkedin job postings that Balakrishnan is building a new un-named startup. "The model will attempt to create a disruption in the TV industry using contemporary internet technologies." The startup is based in Mumbai and has already hired 15 people with experience in digital video.