Reliance signs non-binding pact with Walt Disney for merger of India business: Media report
The Hindu
RIL & Disney-Star to merge, creating one of the largest media & entertainment entities in India worth $10 billion.
The 51:49 cash and stock deal in favour of Reliance Industries was signed in London last week, according to the media report.
Due diligence and valuation may begin soon and the deal could be finalised to "complete all commercial ratifications and regulatory approvals by February, even though RIL is keen to wrap up by January-end," the report said.
Comments from RIL could not be obtained as the mailed query remained unanswered.
When contacted, a spokesperson of Disney-Star declined to comment.
If completed, this would be the biggest merger deal in the media & entertainment sector, creating one of the largest entities having over 100 channels and two leading OTT platforms.
The merged entity would compete with leading media houses such as Zee Entertainment and Sony Pictures, which are in the midst of a merger deal themselves, and other rival OTT platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime.
“Writing, in general, is a very solitary process,” says Yauvanika Chopra, Associate Director at The New India Foundation (NIF), which, earlier this year, announced the 12th edition of its NIF Book Fellowships for research and scholarship about Indian history after Independence. While authors, in general, are built for it, it can still get very lonely, says Chopra, pointing out that the fellowship’s community support is as valuable as the monetary benefits it offers. “There is a solid community of NIF fellows, trustees, language experts, jury members, all of whom are incredibly competent,” she says. “They really help make authors feel supported from manuscript to publication, so you never feel like you’re struggling through isolation.”
Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.