Airtel clarifies 'no proposal' on $2 Bn Amazon deal speculation amid Jio's 6th stake sale

Amid reports that global eCommerce giant Amazon will invest in Indian telecom major Bharti Airtel, the latter has expressed concern over such reports calling them speculative in nature while leading to 'unwarranted consequences'. Bharti Airtel also filed a clarification with SEBI on the reports of the Airtel-Amazon deal. The Gurugram-based giant has made it clear to the market regulator that currently there is 'no such proposal in consideration.'

"We are concerned with such media reports which are published despite appropriate timely clarifications by the respective companies. Such speculative reporting while moving the stock price leads to unwarranted consequences and can result in reputational impact," the operator said in a statement.

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According to an international news agency, Amazon which has made investments of over USD 6.5 billion in India in its eCommerce operations, was said to be in early-stage talks with Bharti Airtel, the third-largest telecom operator in India. It was reported that Amazon is eyeing a stake worth USD 2 billion in Airtel. The telecom operator has however said that it routinely works with all digital and OTT players to have deep engagement with them to bring their products, content and services to Airtel's customer base adding that there is no further activity to report beyond the routine engagements.

The speculations of Amazon-Airtel deal comes after the reports of Google to be in talks with Vodafone for a possible large scale investment in the latter which has had a rocky ride in the Indian market, yet holds the second-largest customer base after its merger with Idea Cellular. Meanwhile, speculation is also rife that Microsoft is also eyeing a deal with Reliance Jio, though none of the parties have made any official statements on the news.

It is seemingly raining investments in the volatile Indian telecom sector and especially for Reliance Jio which received yet another large scale funding, this time from Abu Dhabi Based Mubadala which invested Rs 9,093 crore in Jio Platforms, worth a 1.85% equity stake, the sixth such investment in quick succussion.

The first ones to invest in Reliance Jio was the social media giant Facebook, followed by private investment firms Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners and General Atlantic, with the total investment amount standing at Rs 87,655.35 crore.

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