Johannesburg - Johnnic, the telecommunications, media and entertainment group, said yesterday it had acquired Ananzi, an Internet search engine, for an undisclosed amount from its indirect subsidiary I-Net Bridge, in a move into e-commerce.
Johnnic would launch Johnnic e-Ventures, its e-commerce initiative aimed at delivering convergence of all its focus businesses in February.
It also bought I-Net Bridge`s online advertising operation, which would bring in "immediate cash flow".
Paul Edwards, Johnnic`s chief executive, said Ananzi, which generates more than R5 million advertising revenue a year, was an excellent base for the group`s "aggressive" online plans.
"Our goal is to form an e-commerce consumer hub around Ananzi to build it into a leading Internet property in South Africa," he said.
The company hoped the creation of e-Ventures would help establish an "e-hub", of various content distribution platforms.
Johnnic`s interests in content providers include Times Media Limited (TML), whose titles include Business Day, Sunday Times and Financial Mail; pay television M-Net and Summit TV, and music and publishing through Mega.
Neil Jacobson, the chief executive at I-Net Bridge, said Ananzi would be redeveloped for expansion plans.
He said disposing of Ananzi would enable the company to "focus on its business-to-business core activity", providing value-added financial services to businesses.
I-Net Bridge boasts about 25 000 paying individual and corporate subscribers, which include financial institutions such as Nedcor, BoE, Liberty Life and Gensec.
TML and BDFM publishers own a combined 50 percent of I-Net Bridge. The balance is evenly held by US-based Bridge and Dimension Data.
Edwards said Johnnic planned to make further acquisitions "to build a strong Internet business", based on a business to consumer strategy, that would add considerable value to the group.
Johnnic`s share closed 400c higher at R101,20 on the JSE yesterday.