UTV Earmarks $75 Million to Expand New-Media Business

MUMBAI, July 29:
Announcing its first-quarter results today, India’s UTV Software
Communications, partly owned by The Walt Disney Company, said it had set aside
$75 million to expand its gaming business, including an investment in the
mobile sector in the U.S.

The firm, which operates a
range of businesses, including TV production, channels, feature film production
and distribution, animation and gaming, reported revenues for the period of Rs.
1.45 billion ($35.1 million), a 154-percent gain on the year-ago period. Net
income was Rs. 251 million ($5.9 million), a 176-percent increase.

Part of the $75 million
set aside for new-media businesses will go to investing in a start-up in the
U.S. that is active in the online gaming space. In addition, UTV has entered into
a memorandum of understanding to acquire a controlling stake in a mobile games
aggregator in the U.S. UTV is also planning to up its stake in Ignition, the
U.K.-based games publisher, from 70 percent to 95 percent. An investment will
also be made to boost Ignition’s working capital as it continues to develop
console games out of London, Florida and Tokyo.

Ronnie Screwvala, UTV’s
chairman and CEO, noted: “Growth in all our businesses and our focus on
building partnerships have resulted is strong performance for this quarter. We
believe that the expanded opportunity pipelines that we have created over the
past few quarters in each of our verticals have started to deliver, bringing us
in the forefront of this dynamic Indian media and entertainment industry. The
outlook for this fiscal is very attractive, given the initiatives that we are
implementing in all our five verticals i.e. Television, Movies, Interactive,
Broadcasting and New Media. In addition, with the strategic relationship with
Disney we have delivered on our commitment to maximize long-term shareholder
value.”

The Walt Disney Company
owns 32.1 percent of UTV.

—By Mansha Daswani