NBA team owner Ranadive now plans to invest in IPL

An Indian software mogul who recently bought a US National Basketball Association (NBA) team called the Golden State Warriors, now plans to invest in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

"Cricket is quite a popular game in India and I would like to invest in the IPL soon," Vivek Ranadive, chief executive officer (CEO), TIBCO Software, a US- based infrastructure software provider, told Mail Today. The software entrepreneur also plans to promote basketball in India. "We are discussing with the NBA league for sponsorships and we plan to hold Bollywood nights here for promotion," said Ranadive, who had earlier claimed that an initiative of NBA in India with the Mahindras was more or less fruitful.

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Ranadive said that soon after buying the Golden State Warriors team, TIBCO came up with visual analytics for playing basketball to take his team to the top. The visual analytics help basketball players plan their "backdoor cut" or a defending shot better by seeing images with the help of TIBCO's technology during the NBA league.

"We have invested $ 450 million in Golden State Warriors and buying such an NBA team certainly has increased the profile of the company," said Ranadive.

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The TIBCO Software CEO said that now cloud computing, real-time events and mobility are driving the company's growth but expects this to increase after the acquisition of the basketball team.

"We expect 15 to 20 per cent growth every year and we are doing well on Wall Street also. The company has recorded about 30 per cent growth during the first quarter in 2011," he said.

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Ranadive claimed that TIBCO is "the largest provider of software for cloud as of now". On TIBCO's business in India, he said, "India's market is at a growing stage now. We have an R& D facility in Pune and will open one more development centre in Hyderabad soon." TIBCO has partnerships with major infotech firms such as TCS, Infosys, Wipro and HCL. It also provides services for mobile apps to Reliance and middleware services to Mahindra in India.

Ranadive also said, "I love the place I live in (Silicon Valley) and it was an opportunity to give back to the community being an Indian. This apart, a great business as it will have 82 games in a year and 246 hours of content, which has a guaranteed market. So, it is a win-win situation all around.".

Courtesy: Mail Today