San Francisco, Aug 02: Yahoo and venture
capital firm Canaan partners invested an undisclosed amount in
Indian matchmaking site bharatmatrimony.com, adding to Yahoo's
10 acquisitions and investments in the past year.
Bharatmatrimony.com, a Chennai-based company with 7.5
million users, will also get promotional help from Sunnyvale,
California-based Yahoo, spokeswoman Helena Maus said.
The investment strategy lets Yahoo, the most-visited
US internet site, quickly add new products and tap
international markets. The company in June agreed to buy 10
percent of South Korean online auctioneer GMarket and last
year paid one billion dollar for 40 percent of alibaba.com
corp in China.
Founded in 1997, bharatmatrimony.com has 300 employees
and charges users from 43 dollar a month to browse profiles of
potential spouses and communicate using the site. Westport,
Connecticut-based Canaan partners opened an office in India on
June 6.
Yahoo's sales are growing fastest outside the US.
International revenue gained 32 percent to 506 million dollar
in the second quarter as US sales rose 23 percent to 1.07
billion dollar.
Yahoo bought or invested in 12 companies with names
like del.icio.us and Ludicorp last year, up from 10 in 2004,
as Google and Microsoft stepped up competition for internet
users. The purchases added features such as an online photo
site that lets users share and annotate photos and software
for placing calls over the internet.
Bureau Report
First Published: Wednesday, August 02, 2006, 00:00