(14 October 2009 6:35 pm)

MUMBAI: The recently merged combined entity, ApnaCircle-Viadeo, has announced the acquisition of Unyk, a Canadian social networking site.

This acquisition includes Unyk’s membership of 16 million users that is growing at a rate of 600,000 new members each month.

Unyk members will now become ApnaCircle- Viadeo members, bringing the global network to over 25 million users and increasing the growth rate of over one million users per month.

This acquisition will also help Indian members of ApnaCircle to double their reach and also help increasing the growth rate of ApnaCircle’s network to 150 thousand users per month.

ApnaCircle founder and CEO Yogesh Bansal says, “This acquisition will help us to grow Indian market organically. This will also get us critical mass, while providing greater usability and value to our members through Unyk’s smart address book and synchronisation technology. We have been growing at a substantial pace and I am sure this acquisition will help us to grow further”.

Viadeo CEO Dan Serfaty says, “This acquisition is highly complementary and more than doubles Viadeo’s network, while strengthening our global and local market presence. I believe we have significantly strengthened our market position and offering, particularly throughout Mexico, Brazil and India, and now have a North American presence, with four million members throughout Canada, the US and Mexico.

"We’re building a global platform, but remain committed to developing local offerings specific to each market we service, one of our key competitive differentiators. On behalf of the management team and Board, I would like to welcome the Unyk team to our family."

Unyk is the first smart and private address book that updates itself and is used primarily by business professionals looking to keep multiple address books current with the latest and simplest technology.

The company possesses technology services with its core differentiator, a synchronisation tool that enables members to seamlessly merge their address books from Outlook, webmail, cell phones and more.

With Unyk, users are able to access a consolidated and up-to-date address book, anytime from anywhere.