Sony Financial News

merger deal with Sony and the likely subsequent legal and regulatory implications.

OnePlus has launched its OnePlus 12R smartphone series in India, powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset and will be available at a starting price of ₹39,999. The smartphone was launched at the Smooth Beyond Belief event along with the OnePlus 12 and OnePlus Buds 3. The OnePlus 12R features a 6.78-inch AMOLED ProXDR display with support for LTPO4.0, meaning the smartphone can run from 1-120Hz depending on the app running.

Zee share price tanks 33%, erases over ₹7k crore mcap as Sony calls off merger; brokerages downgrade stock The losses in midcaps and smallcaps were even deeper as the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices ended with losses of nearly 3 per cent each. The overall market capitalisation of the BSE-listed firms plunged to nearly ₹366 lakh crore from nearly ₹374.4 lakh crore in the previous session, making investors lose about ₹8.4 lakh crore in a single session.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises share price saw sharp decline of more than 25% on the NSE and the BSE, post Sony ended its merger agreement and demanded $90 million in termination fee. As the stock erased more than ₹5000 Crore market-cap, all investors including Mutual funds were at the receiving end.

BENGALURU (Reuters) -Zee Entertainment's shares (NS:ZEE) plunged 10% on Tuesday, set for their biggest one-day slide since April 2021, after Sony (NYSE:SONY) India scrapped a $10 billion merger with the Indian broadcaster, raising concerns about its survival in an increasingly competitive industry.

Word of Sony walking away from the altar of its merger with Zee had preceded Monday’s termination of their agreement. Its terms had not been met, said the Japanese group’s entertainment unit.

MUMBAI : Shares of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd may open 10% lower on Tuesday and fall further, market participants said, as the termination of its merger with Sony Corp. group’s Indian entity sparks block deals and liquidation of long positions. Mutual funds including Aditya Birla Sun Life MF, Kotak MF, ICICI Prudential MF and Nippon India MF, hold 32.49% of Zee’s equity, while insurance companies like Life Insurance Corp., SBI Life and HDFC Life Insurance Co., hold 10.66% and foreign portfolio investors, including Norges Bank and Vanguard, etc., hold 28.19% as of the December quarter end.

Axis Bank: The lender is set to announce its third quarter results for FY24 on January 23. Kotak Institutional Equities estimates the bank to announce Net Interest Income (NII) of ₹124,553 million for Q3FY24, up 8.6% compared to the corresponding period last year. Net profit for Q3FY24 is projected to stand at ₹62,120 crore, up 6% year-on-year.

Axis Bank, ZEE, Cipla among others will be in focus due to various developments and quarterly numbers. Here's a complete list of stocks for investors to track.

Sony Group's decision to call off its deal with Zee Entertainment Enterprises and seek a termination fee of $90 million (Rs 748 crore) is likely to trigger a messy legal war, with both companies filing cases against each other in multiple judicial forums, lawyers said. After this announcement, both parties can approach an arbitration tribunal as per their contractual agreements, or a high court for any interim relief, they said. On Monday, Zee informed stock exchanges that Sony Group companies Culver Max Entertainment and Bangla Entertainment terminated the merger co-operation agreement and invoked arbitration to get several reliefs. After the approval of the scheme by the National Company Law Tribunal, any dispute relating to changes in the key terms of the merger scheme shows that there are attempts to seek more than what the parties had already agreed under the deal, said Ashish Pyasi, partner of law firm Aendri Legal. «As the parties have already exercised their negotiation option as per the agreement and are now opting for an arbitration dispute, then the termination of the agreement can also be challenged on grounds including non-performance of any conditions of the agreement before the arbitral tribunal,» said Pyasi. «In such an event, the tribunal will decide the issues after considering all the facts to see whether the respective terms have been complied with or not, and whether there is a breach of the agreement or not as alleged.»

Mint Explainer: The collapse of Sony-Zee merger and its wider implications The global brokerage firm has further slashed the target price of Zee Entertainment stock by 34% to ₹198. Sony has formally asked Zee to halt the merger, while simultaneously seeking a termination fee of $90 million, alleging breaches on the part of the Indian media giant. Sony has escalated the matter by initiating arbitration proceedings against Zee.

BENGALURU : Three months after Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd’s largest investor, American money manager Invesco, first blew the bugle of shareholder activism in September 2021 and demanded a reconstitution of the company’s board, media mogul Subhash Chandra signed a merger agreement with Japanese giant Sony Corp. On 22 December, 2021, Zee and Sony proposed to create a $10-billion media behemoth in which Sony would own 50.88% and the Chandra family 3.99%, with the remaining shares held by public investors. The news of the announcement in the media in the run-up to the formal announcement had pushed up the share price: Zee shares were up 90% from 11 September, when Invesco’s letter to the Zee board was shared with the stock exchanges.

SEBI as part of its ongoing investigation against the key management personnel of ZEEL, namely Punit Goenka, CEO and MD, has questioned some of the erstwhile directors of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL), asking them about the steps they took to protect the minority shareholder rights of the company. On Monday, Sony Group Corp terminated its proposed $10 billion merger — first announced in December 2021 — between its India operations and Zee to create the largest media giant in the country. Following the development, at least 6 institutional shareholders cumulatively owning over 30 per cent of ZEEL are believed to be planning to approach the board and stock market regulator SEBI in the next week, to call an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of ZEEL and seek the removal of ZEEL chairman R Gopalan and Punit Goenka, CEO and MD of the company. Over 350 ZEEL retail shareholders too are planning to join forces and write to SEBI seeking its intervention to protect their shareholder rights.

Zee Entertainment, global broking firm CLSA on Monday downgraded the stock to sell rating and warned investors that a valuation de-rating could be in the offing.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) Punit Goenka today dubbed the breakdown of Sony-Zee deal as a sign from Lord Ram.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd after snapping merger negotiations that would have created among India’s largest media networks. The unravelling of the deal will hurt both the companies, say experts, especially in the context of the ongoing talks for a merger of Disney Star with Reliance Industries-controlled Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd. Disney Star is already India’s leading network, with more than a 30% share of the market.

By Nishit Navin and Chris Thomas

Investing.com -- U.S. stock futures gain on Monday, in a possible sign of ongoing upward momentum after a tech-fueled surge in equities last week. The U.S. aviation authority recommends new safety checks on Boeing (NYSE:BA) planes that have similar features to a jet model involved in a mid-air door plug breach earlier this month. Sony (NYSE:SONY) pulls the plug on a mega-merger with India's Zee Entertainment, sparking a potential legal battle.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises CEO Punit Goenka on Monday reacted to Sony officially ending the merger of its India unit with Zee. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), he called it a ‘sign from the lord’.

snapping its agreement and seeking $90 million in termination fees. In response to the merger termination notice, Zee has refuted Sony's breach claims and the demanded termination fee, and is planning legal actions to protect its stakeholders' interests.

Culver Max Entertainment is seeking a termination fee of $90 million from Zee Entertainment Enterprises on account of alleged breaches of the terms of the Merger Co-operation Agreement (MCA), Zee said in a statement to the stock exchange.