Simarprit’s Weblog

Diwali Mela and Virtual Rakhi get a new organizer July 4, 2008

Business synergies are critical. Small business doesn’t make sense for anyone anymore, more so for those who have other assets and businesses to handle.

Compare Infobase now owns over 1600 websites and portals, I remember at the best the names or existence of about 200 of them, as Compare’s business is to develop and sell websites, selling a website is a business transaction. Whenever we sell an Internet site which is known, we are asked don’t you feel bad after selling the site? My answer is we loved developing it and owning it and we love the act of selling it, this is our business. The second part of my answer actually is not palatable to people, “We make effort to sell to a buyer who would do justice to the site”. Most of the people find the answer a guilt cover, which it is not as selling is a pleasure and not a guilt. The new owner group of http://www.diwalimela.com(Diwali Mela) are well established players, they understand sites as much as we do and they desire to pursue e-commerce business. Dinesh Aggarwal is a dear friend and an old business associate, Dinesh is more known for India Mart however he also owns Intermesh Shopping Network which has bought Diwali Mela and its stablemate http://www.virtualrakhi.com  (Virtual Rakhi).

Diwali Mela was born as a concept of holding a global Diwali Mela or an Exhibition on the Internet. We used it like that for few years, but somehow we always felt that our job was not to manage a business of the site, we were comfortable managing and developing the site. With Diwali Mela and Virtual Rakhi (Our site for the festivals of Raksha Bandhan and not a virtual Rakhi Sawant… LoL) sold we exit from one of the business lines which we were reluctant players in.

Diwali Mela and Virtual Rakhi leave behind fond memories and great learning experience, we wish both the sites best of luck and great success with their new owners.