MAM
Clevertap brings in Honey Bajaj as SVP and global chief of consumer experience
Mumbai: Clevertap has brought Honey Bajaj on board as senior vice president (SVP) and global chief of consumer experience. Bajaj is a design strategist, an innovation leader and a social entrepreneur with extensive work in India and the US.
Before joining Clevertap, Honey built an innovation pipeline for several Fortune 500 companies, including Boston Consulting Group Digital Ventures, Disney, Microsoft Research, MIT Media Lab and Tata Group. At Tata Group, she developed detailed market segmentation frameworks based on purchase behaviour to orchestrate product launches and go-to-market strategies.
She is also a dual degree holder with a master’s degree in engineering and management and a master’s in sustainability studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is currently pursuing her PhD in design and innovation methodologies in the digital world.
“As we scale Clevertap into a global category creator for ‘retention cloud,’ we realise that our customers are eager to co-create experiences that will fuel growth and the future of their own digital businesses,” Clevertap chief growth officer Vikrant Chowdhary. “For this reason, we are expanding our leadership team with a new appointment that benefits the most important stakeholder: our customers’ customers.”
He further added, “From fintech to ecommerce, and from on-demand super apps to media and streaming services, companies need the inspiration and tangible examples of the ‘art of possible’ to unleash human-centered design thinking, unlock new perspectives and drive powerful momentum and positive results for all stakeholders. “This outcome is inextricably linked with our customers’ abilities to realise and hyper-personalise omnichannel journeys for their customers.”
“I have always focused on designing for impact and inventing for scale by contextualising tech for the consumers,” said Honey Bajaj. “The truth is, no matter what we think we’re doing, we are all in the customer-experience business. Before you can accomplish it, you need to envision it. The digital behaviour and expectations of customers is evolving faster than most industries are able to deliver. I am looking forward to my journey with Clevertap to embed human-centered principles and design thinking into a series of initiatives and programs,”
She added, “These efforts will allow digital-first companies to co-create and simulate digital journeys that will fuel growth through superior customer experience and will enable Clevertap’s customers to realise their consumer journeys in a more seamless and contextual manner as the lines of the digital and omnichannel world are no longer separated.”
MAM
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.
