MUMBAI: Raghav Bahl-promoted Television Eighteen Group is on an acquisition spree. Having gobbled up several internet firms, the company is now acquiring the assets of Crisil MarketWire (CMW), a financial news wire service from Crisil Ltd, for an undisclosed amount.

The CMW business will be rechristened NewsWire18 Pvt LTD and will be a group company of the TV 18 Group. The transfer will take effect from 1 January. This follows the earlier decision of CRISIL and TVI8 to jointly develop a framework for business collaboration.

CMW will transform itself from a real-time financial newswire into an integrated information terminal, targeted initially at the domestic market. "This transfer will further enhance CMW’s capability to meet customer demand for a good quality, locally-focused real-time news and data product that meets all the needs of financial market participants in India. The TV 18 Group is committed to grow the news and the information terminal business," the company said.

The old team will be retained and Crisil MarketWire Ltd. CEO Pankaj Aher will continue to head the business. "The new venture will carry with it all the staff of CMW across all locations and functions," TV18 confirmed.

Commenting on the acquisition, Bahl said: "The strategic fit that the newswire business will provide to our existing business will create tremendous shareholder value. This acquisition marks an important milestone in our journey towards becoming a more integrated news company."

Added Television Eighteen Group CEO Haresh Chawla, "We are very pleased to have the CMW business on-board and are committed to help it grow to its rightful potential. This transaction and the news and data platform complements our leadership brands in the financial news and information space and will help us extend our dominance to the institutional segment and serve it better."

The news business will have its own real-time market data and news terminal that is sourced from Tenfore Systems Ltd. Founded in 1989, Tenfore has direct end users in more than 60 countries, and boasts over 500 corporate clients including HSBC, ING and Rabobank and 45 wholesale / redistribution clients including Thomson Financial and GFI.

Tenfore is head quartered in the UK, with offices in Germany, The Netherlands, and Switzerland.