India’s Zomato expands movie and event ticketing business with $244 million Paytm deal

BENGALURU (Reuters) -India’s Zomato said on Wednesday it will acquire the movie and events ticketing businesses of digital payments firm Paytm for $244.2 million as the food delivery platform looks to beef up its fast-growing ticketing business.

The acquisition bolsters Zomato’s presence in India’s online ticketing market for movies and live events, currently dominated by Reliance-backed BookMyShow.

Paytm, which has been BookMyShow’s closest competitor since 2017, will now hand over its market share to Zomato by selling its ‘ticketnew’ platform, which sells movie tickets, as well as its ‘Insider’ platform, which handles tickets to live events.