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AdNear raises Rs 350 mn from Sequoia and Canaan Partners
MUMBAI: Location-based mobile advertising platform AdNear raised Rs 350 million ($6.3 million) from Sequoia Capital and Canaan Partners in the first round of early-stage venture funding. The company leverages real-time geo-location, combined with consumer behaviour, to target relevant users.
The company intends to utilise the funds raised towards expanding its operations in the Asia Pacific region. AdNear is also looking at expanding its team. Currently, the company services clients across the Asia Pacific region including Australia apart from India and Singapore. AdNear has offices in Singapore and Bangalore.
AdNear was set up in 2009 by Anil Mathews and has offices in Singapore and Bengaluru. It was earlier called Imere Technologies. AdNear‘s ad platform is built on proprietary hybrid geo-location platform, which helps provide location awareness on mobile phones without GPS or operator assistance. Its clients include brands like Titan, Ford, Toyota, Pizza Hut, Samsung, Airtel and Nokia.
By leveraging real-time geo-location and combining it with consumer behaviour, the platform allows brands to target relevant users within a geo-fence. This allows them to reach out to a larger audience making the communication more geographically relevant for the advertiser and the consumer. The ad platform is available on smart phones and feature phones.
Canaan‘s current technology investments in India include Naaptol, BharatMatrimony and UnitedLex and Sequoia has invested in companies like Café Coffee Day, Idea Cellular, Just Dial, Manappuram Finance, Paras, Quick Heal, Micromax, Mu Sigma and Vasan Health Care.
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Paramount set to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in $81 billion deal
Shareholders back merger, combined entity could reshape streaming and studios.
MUMBAI: Lights, camera… consolidation, Hollywood’s latest blockbuster might be happening off-screen. Shareholders of Warner Bros. Discovery have voted in favour of selling the company to Paramount in a deal valued at $81 billion rising to nearly $111 billion including debt setting the stage for one of the biggest shake-ups in modern media. The proposed merger, still subject to regulatory approvals, would bring together a vast portfolio spanning HBO Max, CNN, and franchises such as Harry Potter under the same umbrella as Paramount’s own heavyweights, including Top Gun and CBS.
At the heart of the deal is streaming scale. Executives have indicated plans to combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into a single platform, potentially creating a stronger challenger to giants like Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video. Current market data suggests HBO Max holds around 12 per cent of US on-demand subscriptions, compared to Paramount+’s 3 per cent, together still trailing Netflix’s 19 per cent and Disney’s combined 27 per cent via Disney+ and Hulu.
Paramount CEO David Ellison has signalled that while platforms may merge, HBO’s creative identity will remain intact, stating the brand should “stay HBO” even within a broader ecosystem.
Beyond streaming, the deal would redraw the map for film production. Combining two of Hollywood’s oldest studios Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros., the new entity aims to scale output to over 30 films annually, while maintaining a 45-day theatrical window. Warner Bros. currently commands around 21 per cent of the US box office, compared to Paramount’s 6 per cent, underscoring the strategic weight of the acquisition.
But scale comes with scrutiny. Critics warn that fewer players could mean reduced consumer choice, rising subscription costs, and potential job cuts as the combined company looks to streamline overlapping operations while managing billions in debt.
The news business, too, faces a reset. CNN would join forces at least structurally with Paramount-owned CBS, raising questions about editorial independence and positioning. The merger has already drawn political attention in the United States, particularly given perceived ties between the Ellison family and Donald Trump, though the company maintains that newsroom autonomy will be preserved.
If approved, the deal would mark another milestone in Hollywood’s consolidation wave shrinking the industry’s traditional “big six” studios to a “big four”, with Paramount joining Disney, Universal, and Sony at the top table.
In an industry built on storytelling, this merger may well become its most consequential plot twist yet.
