Amazon.com Inc. is in advanced discussions to acquire MX Player, Times Internet’s video streaming platform, as confirmed by three people with direct knowledge of the development.
Amazon.com Inc. is in advanced discussions to acquire MX Player, Times Internet’s video streaming platform, as confirmed by three people with direct knowledge of the development.
The US e-commerce giant has hired one of the Big Four accounting firms to exclusively conduct MX Player’s due diligence, and the process is expected to take 30 to 40 days, one of the three said, asking not to be identified.
The US e-commerce giant has hired one of the Big Four accounting firms to exclusively conduct MX Player’s due diligence, and the process is expected to take 30 to 40 days, one of the three said, asking not to be identified.
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A deal could come within two months if all goes well, said the second person, who also declined to be named.
“Talks have been going on for a while,” the person said. “Times Internet previously asked for over $100 million for MX Player, while Amazon’s in-house team valued it at around £500 million ($60 million). The deal is likely to be in the 600-900 crore range.
Inquiries to speakers from Amazon and MX Player remained unanswered as of press time.
Amazon owns subscription streaming service Prime Video and an ad-supported MiniTV service in India. Amazon launched the free MiniTV service in May 2021 within the Amazon shopping app for Android phone users, which was later offered to iPhone users as well.
Targeting top SEC (socioeconomic classes) segments, Prime Video comes bundled with Prime subscription, which offers free shipping on eligible items and ad-free music alongside video content.
However, miniTV does not require a subscription and is aimed at the masses with smartphones and data connections. The addition of MX Player will give a massive boost to Amazon’s AVoD (advertiser video-on-demand) business.
MX Player was originally developed by a South Korean app developer as a media player for downloaded videos.
In 2018 Times Internet, owned by Bennett Coleman & Co Ltd (BCCL), acquired MX Player for 1,000 crore (around US$140 million at the time) to get its foot in the door to video streaming after a number of failed attempts including BoxTV to mark.
MX Player was later relaunched as an ad-supported video streaming app. The biggest advantage of the player was that it was already present on the smartphones of over 100 million users and counted 50 million daily users at that time. Today, MX Player claims over 300 million users worldwide.
However, the company, which most recently raised about $111 million in a funding round led by Chinese internet giant Tencent, has been unable to generate enough cash to fund its expansion for a while, and Times Internet has some of its deals sold.
In February of last year, the company sold its short video platform MX Takatak to Temasek-backed ShareChat. In May 2022, Times Internet sold Dineout to Swiggy in a stock deal, while later in December it sold lifestyle publications – MensXP and iDiva – and an influencer marketing firm Hypp to Mensa Brands.
