On 12 April 2019, in a simultaneous announcement at Mumbai and New Delhi, 4Cplus (Internet) Company Limited and Dot1 Solutions Private Limited stated that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement.
4Cplus over the year has established itself as a software solutions provider to news publishers, digital media companies and roadcasters. 4Cplus has domain expertise in enterprise solutions (ERP), internet applications, technology solutions, and newsroom automation. On the other hand, Dot1 which was incorporated in 2014, delivers more than 50 services and products in management consulting, technology and business transformation outsourcing.
“We’ve also merged with 4Cplus, which is a technology service and management consulting space with a focus on the media industry. So, Dot1’s services and 4Cplus’s products will give us a cutting-edge in a market that really requires innovation all the time and you don’t
necessarily need to be tied-down to players who aren’t flexible. All the solutions and software providers need to understand the flexibility that the media industry requires at
this point,” says Sanjay Hiranandani, managing partner, and chief executive officer of Dot1 Solutions.
4Cplus and Dot1 offer advertising solutions, editorial solutions, including solutions for circulation and subscription. Post-merger, the companies have laid special emphasis on certain mobile-based applications to facilitate sales analysis on-themove, collections on-the-move, and editorial content. “So, it’s not all about enterprise-in solutions
or enterprise-wide solutions but solutions that allow you to extend your enterprise as well. Talking about mainstream print media, I’d say, nothing dies as such. As newer media comes in and as you get information on your fingertips, newspaper organizations from being in their business of providing news, they’re in the business on providing news
on news. Hence, the content has to be extremely important and once everybody understands that and starts focussing on content, you will find that print will have its avenues and ensure that business continues the way it should,” adds Hiranandani.
At Wan-Ifra, 4Cplus and Dot1 focussed on showing its presence to the Indian media community and the Indian market. “I’ve attended a few sessions and they’ve all been
enriching. A major takeaway from this year’s edition is that print media isn’t dying after all. I’ve been attending this event for two decades and its nice to see the same set of people coming year-after-year to discuss the pain points of the industry,” says Hiranandani.
“We will make certain announcements very soon extending our portfolio. Robotic process
automation is in our minds that we will focus on majorly to ensure we provide automation solutions to the industry. We will soon be announcing some news on that front. Post-merger, things have been outstanding. Frankly, it couldn’t have happened at a better time. There is a constant need for innovations and solutions but those have to come at a
palatable price-point. Not everybody who comes from across the globe understands that. It’s extremely important for us to understand that there have to be innovations and solutions that come at a price point and we do believe that we can provide them,” Hiranandani concludes.
