The deal, sources said, was signed in the US. Microland, it is believed, will make an announcement later in the week.Though Microland refused to comment, Star TV chief executive officer Peter Mukerjea confirmed that News Corp had invested in ITSpace.com. "We found the website a potentially valuable and viable business proposition for the information-technology community. It is managed by the Microland Group and has strong revenue streams. We found it a good bet," Mukerjea said.News Corp had earlier picked up around 33 per cent in Microland's horizontal portal indya.com. "This is the second investment we are making in the Microland Group," Mukerjea said.Star TV has earmarked $100 million towards picking up equity in domestic Internet companies. It has invested in a few Internet companies, like Baazee.com, an auction site. Star TV made a substantial strategic investmentin Baazee's third round of funding of $19 million.

The company's executive vice-president Gary Walrath was inducted into the board of Baazee.com.Star TV is carrying out due diligence in 12 local Internet companies that it has shortlisted. "Arthur Andersen is doing the due diligence for us. Besides, we are also doing an internal evaluation. We will announce the companies we are investing in as soon as the due diligence is over," Mukerjea said.Microland will benefit from News Corp's strategic investment, as it will help in buliding its websites into a global brand.

indya.com has a wide range of investors, including Chase Capital Partners, Vinod Khosla of Kleiner Perkins, and Europ@web and John Sculley of Sculley Brothers. News Corp will be the first big investor in ITSpace.com.Commenting on the significance of the association with the international media giant, indya.com chief executive officer Sunil Lulla said: "News Corp's strategic investment provides us the leverage of partnering with a powerhouse of global media brands and businesses."ITSpace.com willintroduce three new channels soon. While a shopping channel will be launched in mid-July, e-mail services will be introduced within two months. The site will also have a new chat show called Entrepreneur Talk within six weeks.News Corp, which is a late entrant into the new media, is looking aggressively at the Asian region to develop Internet properties. It has appointed Lalit Ahuja, a former executive from LGSoft, to head Star TV's Internet division in the country."We realise the importance of convergence. As a content company, we are better positioned to gain from the synergy. We are investing in several Internet companies. We are also building up our own site. Wherever possible, we will have an exchange of content with our Internet partners," said Mukerjea.