Amazon Said to Be in Talks to Buy $2 2s28u Billion Stake in Bharti Airtel

The planned investment, if completed, would mean Amazon acquiring a roughly 5 percent stake based on the current market value of Bharti Airtel. u413l

By Reuters | Updated: 4 June 2020 18:32 IST

Amazon Said to Be in Talks to Buy $2-Billion Stake in Bharti Airtel

The move is an indicator that US tech giants are showing interest in Indian telecom business 6yw52

Highlights

According to the report, Amazon will invest $2 billion in Airtel
The deal will give Amazon a 5 percent stake in Bharti Airtel
Reliance Jio has raised close to $10 billion in multiple funding rounds

ment

Amazon is in early-stage talks to buy a stake worth at least $2 billion (roughly Rs. 15,109 crores) in mobile operator Bharti Airtel, three people with knowledge of the discussions told Reuters, in a move that could turbocharge India's digital economy.

The planned investment, if completed, would mean Jio.

"Jio has transformed itself from a pure mobile operator to a digital technology-led consumer facing platform, and Airtel can do the same," said one of the people.

US PE Giant KKR to Invest Rs. 11,367 Crores in Jio Platforms

"Airtel is looking to play a catch-up game here, and for Amazon it makes all the strategic directional sense for the India business."

Amazon had been mulling several investment options, including buying a stake worth up to 8-10 percent, a second person said.

The talks between Bharti and Amazon are at an early stage and the deal could change, or an agreement may not be reached, said two of the three people, all of whom declined to be identified because the discussions are confidential.

Google Reportedly Eyeing 5 Percent Stake in Vodafone Idea

If talks to buy a stake fail, the companies could also look at a commercial transaction that could give Bharti's customers cheap access to Amazon products, one of the people said.

An Amazon spokeswoman said the company does "not offer comments on speculation of what we may or may not do in future."

Bharti said they routinely work with all digital players to bring their products, content and services to customers. "Beyond that there is no other activity to report," it said in a statement.

Facebook to Buy 9.99 Percent Stake in Reliance Jio

Shares in Bharti closed 3.8% higher after rising as much as 6 percent on news of the Amazon talks. The broader NSE Nifty 50 index closed down 0.32 percent.

US tech interest
The discussions between Amazon and Bharti underscore the attraction of India's digital economy for US tech giants.

Over the past six weeks, Jio, the digital arm of Facebook as it seeks to establish itself as a one-stop digital commerce platform.

Alphabet's reported last week.

Vodafone Idea is the second-largest coronavirus lockdown has led to a surge in demand for online shopping, entertainment and data.

Amazon counts India as a crucial growth market where it has committed $6.5 billion (roughly Rs. 49,100 crores) in investments mainly toward expanding its e-commerce footprint.

The Seattle-based company has also expanded its digital offerings in India via its voice-activated speakers, video streaming and cloud storage, as it seeks to tap a rising number of internet and smartphone s in the country of 1.3 billion people.

A deal with Bharti Airtel could help Amazon expand offerings via its smart speakers and also boost its cloud business as access to Bharti's vast telecom fibre network could help Amazon lower costs. Reliance's Jio has already Azure cloud platform.

Is Realme TV the best TV under Rs. 15,000 in India? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, the episode, or just hit the play button below.

Comments

For the latest reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.