Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries and media conglomerate Walt Disney have a signed a key pact for the mega media merger, a Bloomberg report has said. While there has been no official declaration by either side, a report by the Economic Times said that the merger may be formally announced as early as this week. According to the Bloomberg report, the binding pact terms say that Reliance’s media unit are likely to own at least 61 per cent in the merged corporate entity, with rest to be with Disney.
At valuation of roughly Rs 33,000 crore, Disney has consented to sell its 61 per cent stakes of its India media operations to RIL’s Viacom 18, the report.
The development on media merger comes at a time when Ambani family is getting ready for the wedding of the younger son Anant Ambani with Radhika Merchant. An AFP report says that RIL chairman will host Disney chief Robert Iger on March 1 for his son’s wedding festivities in Jamnagar.
The awkward breakup of Sony and Zee
The news of new media merger comes month after Sony called off deal with Zee. The Japanese giant walked away from what was billed as biggest media deal that India has ever seen over the leadership role of the merged entity. On February 20, Zee had rejected the claims that it was trying to revive the $10 billion media merger with Sony. In a regulatory filing, Zee had termed the reports on merger revival as ‘factually inaccurate.’
Sony had accused Zee of not meeting the conditions of their merger agreement and has taken steps to commence arbitration proceedings with the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), seeking approximately ₹748.5 crore as a termination fee.
In response, Zee had filed a petition with the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), requesting an order for Sony Group to execute the merger. Additionally, Zee took legal measures to challenge Sony Group’s claims of ₹748.5 crore.