Disney said to near multibillion-dollar India deal with Reliance
Reliance Industries, controlled by Asia’s richest tycoon Mukesh Ambani, is nearing a cash and stock deal to buy Walt Disney’s India operations, according to people familiar with the matter.
The US entertainment giant may sell a controlling stake in the Disney Star business, which it values at around $10 billion, as opposed to piecemeal transactions weighed earlier, the people said, asking not to be named because the discussions are private. Reliance views the assets at between $7 billion to $8 billion, some of the people said.
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Offering CollegeCourseWebsiteIndian School of BusinessISB Digital TransformationVisitNorthwestern UniversityKellogg Post Graduate Certificate in Product ManagementVisitIIM LucknowIIML Executive Programme in FinTech, Banking & Applied Risk ManagementVisitThe acquisition could be announced as early as next month with some of Reliance’s media units merged into Disney Star, the people said, without providing further details.
Under the proposal, Disney will likely continue to hold on to a minority stake in the Indian company after any cash and stock swap transaction is completed, the people said. No final decision has been made on the deal or the valuation, and Disney could still decide to hold onto the assets for a bit longer, they added.
A representative for Disney in India didn’t respond to a request for comment and a spokesperson for Reliance declined to comment.
The deal talks are illustrative of Ambani’s disruption of India’s entertainment industry after he scooped up the streaming rights to the Indian Premier League for $2.7 billion in 2022. The billionaire’s JioCinema platform then chose to broadcast the hugely popular domestic cricket
