Yahoo acquires 30% stake in Call Ezee
Yahoo has taken a 30% stake in Indian company, Info Network Management Company, which provides phone directory search service, Call Ezee. However, the exact valuation is not yet known.
The Chennai based two year old company has a five member board, with promoters holding 70% after this dilution. According to founder TS Narayanaswamy, this investment by Yahoo would help them scale up operations and extend reach to 26 cities, from the present 14. They also plan to increase headcount up to ~2,000 people from the present 500 or so.
One of their major competitors in this space is Just Dial, which has been around for almost a decade now.
For Yahoo, this marks the third investment in an Indian company, Bharatmatrimony.com and Tyroo Media being the others, with investments of ~$20 million in the former and ~$9 million in the latter.
