Reliance Industries of India and Walt Disney’s local unit have inked a “binding pact” for a merger, Bloomberg News reported on Monday. This development represents a significant upheaval for the multibillion dollar entertainment sector in India.
India already has one of the largest entertainment markets globally, and the anticipated merger is poised to establish a gigantic and formidable entertainment conglomerate.
The news of the transaction breaks as Reliance Industries’ chairman, billionaire Mukesh Ambani, prepares to welcome Disney CEO Robert Iger to his son’s wedding in the western Indian state of Gujarat on March 1.
According to Bloomberg, the agreement is set to give Reliance’s media division and its affiliates at least 61 percent of the combined company, with Disney owning the remaining shares.
Disney and Reliance did not immediately respond to the situation.
Since Iger departed the firm and was forced to come out of semi-retirement more than a year ago due to his successor’s poor performance, Disney has been under a lot of pressure.
In terms of wealth, Ambani, 66, is ranked 10th in the world on Forbes’ real-time billionaires list.
He has invited a guest list of powerful businessmen and politicians to celebrate the wedding of his son Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant, the daughter of an industrialist, from March 1-3.
According to the partially-owned Reliance-owned broadcaster CNBC-TV18, among the guests invited by Ambani were CEO of Meta Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates of Microsoft, CEO of Adobe Shantanu Narayen, CEOs of investment and banking, and celebrities from Bollywood and cricket.
The former US president’s daughter Ivanka Trump, the King of Bhutan, the former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt, and the former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper are among the other attendees.
A $10 billion merger between Zee Entertainment in India and the local branch of Japanese conglomerate Sony was shelved last month, allegedly due to differences over who would serve as the new organization’s leader.
