Brands
Toonz ropes in Baseline as exclusive licensing & merchandising partner
MUMBAI: Toonz Media Group has signed a multi-year global deal with sports marketing and licensing company Baseline, as its exclusive licensing and merchandising partner.
Baseline with its expertise in marketing and licensing will offer sales and marketing support to the company.
Toonz has several cartoon characters of which some are self created and some are acquired from the likes of Walt Disney, Turner, Nickelodeon, Sony, Universal, BBC, Paramount, Marvel and Hallmark. Baseline’s prime objective is to promote Toonz Media Group’s character in the South Asia region.
Baseline managing director Tuhin Mishra said, “Licensing is a very important vertical of our overall company business. When an opportunity came to join hands with the premier licensing company like Toonz Media Group, we jumped at it as Toonz Media comes with a huge repository of brands that it owns or has acquired over a period of time.We are sure it will be a mutually beneficial partnership in the times to come.”
Toonz Media Group CEO P Jayakumar added, “L&M forms an integral part of Toonz Media Group’s business strategy. It was indeed a delight to know that Baseline Ventures’ vision and ideology were in perfect synchrony with ours. We plan to collaborate with them on all our existing brands and also our new brands in the future. We look forward to a robust and fruitful partnership.”
Brands
Senior leaders exit Deloitte India amid shift in M&A strategy
Rival firms gain ground as Deloitte refocuses on high-value mergers and acquisitions
NEW DELHI: Deloitte has seen a series of senior departures in recent weeks, marking a period of transition as the firm recalibrates its mergers and acquisitions business, according to an Economic Times report. These exits follow a strategic shift in the firm’s advisory approach, which has increasingly focused on larger, high-value transactions.
The executives who have resigned include Rajesh Aggarwal, head of debt advisory, Ruchi Sarna, national head of consumer investment banking, and Suresh Atal, a senior partner in transaction advisory, according to the report. Industry sources indicate that Rajesh Aggarwal and Suresh Atal are likely to join PwC, while Sarna is also expected to move to a competing firm.
This movement follows a significant change in Deloitte’s leadership and focus over the past two years. After Rohit Berry joined from KPMG as president of the vertical, the firm began prioritising deals valued at over $250 million. Berry was accompanied by senior executives Vivek Gupta and Manish Aggarwal, leading to a larger migration of over 200 professionals from KPMG to Deloitte.
The competitive landscape remains fluid. PwC recently appointed Anmol Bhandari, a former Deloitte executive, as head of its transaction services vertical, reinforcing its dealmaking ambitions.
In the professional services sector, senior departures often trigger further team movements, suggesting that more staff may follow these leaders to their new firms.
Despite these exits, Deloitte is actively looking to rebuild its ranks. According to the report, the firm is currently looking to hire between six and nine partners to address gaps in its debt advisory team as it aggressively seeks fresh talent to maintain its market position.
As the major accounting firms continue to compete for leadership, the hierarchy of the Indian advisory market is shifting. While Deloitte has successfully recruited heavily from its rivals in the past, it now faces the challenge of retaining its own senior experts as they are courted by competitors like PwC.
