Netrika Consulting on Thursday said it has acquired Hyderabad-based online antipiracy firm Anti-Piracy Solutions to boost its capabilities in IPR and brand protection.
Sanjay Kaushik, managing director of Netrika Consulting, told ET that his company has a dominant presence in on-ground security and anti-fraud solutions and the acquisition has brought in online capabilities. He did not disclose any financial details of the deal.
“Piracy is moving online and we needed the capability to put a stop to it. The team of APS will be merged with Netrika and this makes us the only firm to have both IPR and offline capabilities,” he said.
Apart from counterfeit products, the company will now also be better placed to fight pirated content involving copyright intellectual properties such as movies, music albums and even educational content online.
A steady increase in the number of counterfeit products being sold online has been impacting the ecommerce segment. The Indian film industry, for instance, earns about $2 billion in revenue every year from legitimate sources. On the other hand, business in pirated films generates an estimated $2.7 billion. This extends to other streams as well, like the music industry and education companies that delivers courses online, said Kaushik.
As per the terms of the deal, Chaitanya N, CEO of Anti-Piracy Solutions (APS), will continue as a director at Netrika Consulting. “We are excited to become a part of Netrika Consulting and with the newfound synergy of expertise and technologies, we look forward to serving existing and new clients more effectively and help them protect their intellectual property better,” he said.
Following the acquisition, Netrika plans to expand to other countries in the Middle East and Asia.
Source: Economic Times