Persistent Systems to acquire info discovery startup Hoopz Planet's assets

Pune-based Persistent Systems Ltd, a software product and technology services provider, has agreed to acquire certain assets of Hoopz Planet Info Pvt Ltd, an information discovery and digital marketing startup based out of Pune, the company said in a filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The transaction details are not disclosed.

As per the agreement, Persistent will acquire assets like technologies, software, IPs and teams from Hoopz. "Hoopz is a content, web and data discovery technology for mobility and is extendable to many other verticals to enable data discovery solutions. Hence, it fits in Persistent's overall social, mobility and cloud (SMAC) and data business goals," Akash Sureka, founder, MD and CEO of Hoopz, told Techcircle.in.

Hoopz was founded in 2011 by Akash Sureka (MD and CEO). A BE in Electronics and Telecommunications, Sureka had earlier worked at Motorola Mobility as senior manager. Prior to that, he was senior manager at Nokia. In the past, he had also worked at companies, such as Bilcare, NVIDIA and Pace Soft Silicon.

The startup enables auto discovery of information and content like blogs, web, articles, news, books, music, audio and video from across the planet based on keywords of user communications (SMS, MMS, e-mail, social networking and instant messaging) and content consumption (web, books, search engine, digital information, audio and video) on smartphones, PCs, tablets, smart TVs, IPTV and eBook Reader. Hoopz currently employs seven people.

Founded in 1990 by IIT Kharagpur alumnus Anand Deshpande, Persistent develops software solutions in next-generation technology areas, including analytics, Big Data, cloud computing, mobility and social, for the telecommunications, banking & financial services, life sciences and healthcare verticals. With over 7,000 employees on board, the company has offices and delivery centres across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. In India, it operates out of offices in Bangalore, Nagpur, Goa and Hyderabad.

The firm, which went public four years ago, has been fairly active in pursuing inorganic expansion. Since its IPO, it has struck seven M&A deals including the latest transaction.

Early this year, Persistent had acquired Pune- and California-based CloudSquads Inc, an enterprise social apps platform, for an undisclosed sum.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)