News Corp buys Bengaluru tech firm to beef up digital play

Founder of Gyan Matrix, News Corp's fourth India acquisition, retained as MD; deal value undisclosed

News Corp has acquired for an undisclosed sum a Bengaluru-based media technology firm GyanMatrix Services Private Limited, an existing website and mobile app developer for its Sun tabloid in UK

This will be the fourth acquisition by NewsCorp in India in recent years, after it bought VC Circle, a stake in Elara Technologies, which includes the digital real estate properties PropTiger, Housing.com and Makaan and personal finance site BigDecisions.

While renaming the acquired GyanMatrix as News Technology Services (NTS), it has retained its founder Rajan Parasuraman as the managing director of the new entity.

"They have already done incredible work for us, from operations and infrastructure support, data technology and science, to software development, including working on The Sun mobile apps and website," said Christina Scott, Deputy CTO, News Corp and Chief Product Officer & CTO, News UK.

GyanMatrix also counted the rival Financial Times as its customer.

NTS will expand its operations and infrastructure, including the creation of over 120 new jobs in India, adding to an existing workforce of 170 employees. The company plans to recruit for a range of roles, including infrastructure technology and operations, application development, data science and digital product development.

"The acquisition of News Technology Services is key to our global technology strategy and the amazing team in India are a big part of our growth plans", said Dominic Shine, Global CIO, News Corp. "We plan to double the size of the team in Bengaluru within 6 months so that the entire News Corp group can benefit from their energy, innovation and technical expertise".

NTS will work directly with News Corp's global brands to offer a range of technology services, including web development, application support, infrastructure management and cyber operations. The approach will allow NTS to augment each company's individual technology teams, particularly in skillsets that are difficult to recruit in local markets.