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A media behemoth in the making. 

Reliance has merged its subsidiary Viacom18’s media and JioCinema businesses with Disney’s Star India, creating an $8.5 billion entertainment giant that will control about 85% of India’s streaming market and roughly half of television viewership in the country. 

Reliance has invested Rs 11,500 crore (about $1.4 billion) and will control the joint venture. RIL and Viacom18 will hold 63.16% of the venture, with Disney retaining the rest.

That’s not all for Disney. In its Q4 earnings, the company said its revenue for the entertainment segment—which includes its traditional TV networks, direct-to-consumer streaming, and films—increased 14% annually to $10.83 billion, thanks to—wait for it—Deadpool & Wolverine.

ICYMI: Meet Haul—Amazon’s answer to low-cost retailer Shein.

Meanwhile, companies are getting creative with their offerings this wedding season. This time, it’s for specialised marriage loans, thanks to Matrimony.com’s fintech platform, WeddingLoan.com. 

Before we wrap up, check out the world’s largest known coral in the waters of the Solomon Islands.

With a circumference of 183 metres, the gigantic multicoloured organism is an intricate network of individual coral polyps that have grown for between 300 and 500 years.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Inside investigation of WazirX’s $234M hack
• Mamaearth slips into red
• Meet Yakshagana artist breaking boundaries

Here’s your trivia for today: What is the highest score possible in the original game of Pac-Man?

Cryptocurrency

Inside investigation of WazirX’s $234M hack

In August, over a month after the $234 million WazirX heist, the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) of Delhi Police arrested one individual, a chargesheet filed on the initial findings viewed by YourStory shows.

The chargesheet details that suspicious activity appeared to be carried out by a WazirX user who joined the platform a week before the hack.

Key takeaways:

• Initial investigation by the IFSO Special Cell shows the accused received payment of 08 USDT in their Binance account in return for access to crypto accounts of WazirX users with credentials.
• WazirX replenishes its hot wallets by transferring funds from its cold wallets when balances run low. The hacker exploited this system by withdrawing and draining large amounts of GALA tokens from the hot wallet. WazirX suspects that the payload was placed by the hackers to transfer wallet control to themselves.
• The cold wallet in question was a multisig wallet whose infrastructure was operated by a third party, Liminal Custody. Liminal Custody has refuted non-compliance from its end.

Funding Alert

Startup: SarvaGram

Amount: Rs 565 Cr 

Round: Series D

Startup: ePlane Company

Amount: $14M

Round: Series B

Startup: Athina AI 

Amount: $3M

Round: Seed

Earnings

Mamaearth slips into red

Honasa Consumer, the parent company behind Mamaearth, clocked a de-growth of 7% in its operating revenue to Rs 461.82 crore in the quarter ended September 2024 versus Rs 496.1 crore earned a year ago.

It posted a loss of Rs 18.71 crore in Q2 FY25, down from a profit of Rs 29.78 crore in the corresponding quarter in the previous year. 

Unexpected:

• Mamaearth’s bottomline was hurt by a double whammy of falling revenue and higher expenses, which rose 9% year-on-year due to higher employee benefits, purchase of traded goods, and finance costs. 
• Over the past few months, it implemented Project Neev to optimise its distribution model from super-stockists to direct distributors in the top 50 cities.
• “The impact of the sales return and the inventory collection … is higher than what we had imagined it to be … We clearly realised that there were pockets of sub-distributors or in-market creditors, which we had not taken into account,” noted Varun Alagh, Chairman and CEO, Honasa Consumer.

Arts

Meet the Yakshagana artist breaking boundaries

Priyanka K Mohan grew up in a home of Yakshagana enthusiasts. Her father, K Mohan, established Yakshadegula dedicated to preserving and promoting the traditional art form. Priyanka is one of the few women who performs and teaches Yakshagana and is passionate about taking the art form forward.

Innovation beyond rituals:

• Yakshagana is still heavily based on bhakti and stories around mythology, with a common message of good over evil. Mohan elaborates that when the art form is performed at temples, it’s ritualistic and follows certain processes.
• So far, Mohan has trained over 2,000 people in Yakshagana, and is one of the few women gurus in the field. She says it took a while for people to accept a female guru, but her journey has been easier because of her father.
• Though Yakshdeagula has staged over 7,000 shows all over India and abroad, Mohan says, each time, organisers negotiate on the fee. But the release of Kantara movie has brought a shift and a surge in demand that has helped the artists.

News & updates

• Probe: The Central Consumer Protection Authority has asked the Bureau of Indian Standards to investigate Ola Electric’s deficiency in service standards and product issues. Last month, Ola Electric was sent a notice seeking an explanation after the CCPA received an unusually high 10,000 complaints.
• Fine: The European Commission has slapped Facebook parent Meta with a fine of nearly $840 million for breaching EU antitrust rules connected to how it ties its online classified ads service, Facebook Marketplace, creating “unfair trading conditions” for other providers of classifieds online.
• Revival: Marico expects urban consumption will take at least six months to revive, signalling more pain for the sector from food inflation, which has hit a 15-month high. Though consumption is mainly affected among the middle- and lower-income classes, there is not much impact on those with high incomes.

What is the highest score possible in the original game of Pac-Man?

Answer: 3,333,360.

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