DLA Piper has been advising the Gruner + Jahr publishing group on the acquisition of the Indian start-up Seventynine. Seventynine specializes in digital advertising for mobile devices. Its business is being purchased by the leading Indian digital marketing company NetworkPlay, in which Gruner + Jahr acquired a majority holding at the beginning of the year – also with the assistance of DLA Piper. Acquisition of the Seventynine business enables Gruner + Jahr to further reinforce its presence on the Indian advertising market.
The Gruner + Jahr publishing group, which is headquartered in Hamburg, is a majority holding of the Bertelsmann corporation, the largest media enterprise in Europe. With more than 300 newspapers, journals and magazines as well as over 150 websites in more than 30 countries, Gruner + Jahr is one of the most international publishing houses in the world. In 2011 Gruner + Jahr generated a turnover of some €2.3bn with 12,000 employees and is thus the largest German publisher in terms of sales.
Seventynine was founded as a service provider for digital advertising on mobile devices by the Smile Vun Group. The focus of Seventynine is on rich media inventory, in particular on videos and HTML5 for increasing user comfort. Seventynine currently processes 1.8 billion advertising requests and also possesses the analytical tools Seventynine App Analytics Service and Predictive Analytics Engine.
The team from DLA Piper managed by partner Dr Benjamin Parameswaran (Corporate, Hamburg) comprised partner Dr Daniel H. Sharma (Litigation & Regulatory, Munich) and associate Sebastian Decker (Corporate, Hamburg).
The DLA Piper India Group for continental Europe is headed up by Dr Parameswaran and Dr Sharma, who have extensive experience in providing support for European clients during their activities in India as well as for Indian clients with activities in Europe.
In India DLA Piper was working together on this transaction with a team led by partners Jatin Aneja and Vidyut Gulati as well as associate Varun Nair from the firm Amarchand & Mangaldas in Delhi.
The Gruner + Jahr inhouse legal team was led by legal counsel Dr Frank Ludwig.
