BENGALURU (Reuters) – Indian food delivery platform Zomato said on Wednesday it will acquire digital payments firm Paytm's movie and event ticketing businesses for a combined 20,480 crore rupees ($244.2 million), as the food delivery platform looks to diversify beyond food delivery.
The acquisition strengthens Zomato's presence in India's vast online ticketing market for movies and live events, currently dominated by Reliance-backed BookMyShow.
Paytm, which has been BookMyShow's closest competitor since 2017, will now cede its market share to Zomato by selling its 'ticketnew' platform, which sells movie tickets, as well as its 'Insider' platform, which handles tickets for live events.
Paytm built its movie ticketing business in-house and acquired Insider and TicketNew for Rs 2,680 crore in 2017-18.
However, the company is now exiting these businesses to focus on its core payments and financial services operations, following a February order by India's central bank to close its banking unit.
For Zomato, the move is in line with its efforts to expand its non-core businesses, which include restaurant reservation services and an event management and ticketing unit.
The two units, which accounted for 2% of Zomato's total revenue last year, were also its fastest-growing segments.
(1 dollar = 83.8680 Indian rupees)
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