Buyout

MakeMyTrip, Goibibo and Naspers’ India Reset

Ashish Kashyap and Naspers came out of nowhere to build Goibibo to take on MakeMyTrip. They may have underestimated the latter's pluck, or their own risk appetite

Rohin Dharmakumar, 20 Oct 2016

“There was no desperation,” says Deep Kalra, the CEO of MakeMyTrip. “From either side.”

He is referring, of course, to MakeMyTrip’s decision to acquire the Ibibo group from its parents, South-Africa’s Naspers and China’s Tencent.

“In some deals, one side is desperate. So the deal might get done quickly, but the other side will squeeze it out. Ours took a long time because neither side was desperate.

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Rohin Dharmakumar

Rohin is co-founder and CEO at The Ken. He holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta and an engineering degree in Computer Sciences from the R.V.C.E., Bangalore.

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MakeMyTrip, Goibibo and Naspers’ India Reset