Published 21:14 IST, March 26th 2020
Is Facebook going to buy a stake in Reliance Jio? Know here
Facebook planning to buy a stake in Reliance Jio to expand its reach in the Indian market. Know how much stake it is buying in the Indian Teleco, Reliance Jio.
According to several reports, Facebook is planning to buy stakes in Reliance Jio. This multi-billion dollar deal is postponed due to the recent global restrictions over travel because of the Coronavirus pandemic. The reports further reveal that Reliance Jio Teleco is also in talks with Google.
Facebook in talks to buy 10 per cent stakes in Indian telecom Reliance Jio
Reportedly, Facebook and Jio have been in talks about this deal for a long time now. The global expanse of the COVID-19 has currently stopped the deal to move further. According to a leading economic news portal, in October 2019, Reliance Jio's enterprise value was estimated to be around $60-65 billion.
In 2019, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, RIL had told shareholders that the company, Reliance Jio is been approached by potential strategic partners. He mentioned that they will "induct the right partners in our platform company". From the grand launch of Reliance Jio in 2015 and public operations starting from 2016, the company has become amongst the biggest Teleco organisation in the Indian market. According to data published by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the subscriber numbers have crossed the base of around 370 million in three years.
As per reports, in December 2019, Jio, under Reliance Industries, had a market share of 32.1 per cent and a revenue market share of 35.4 per cent. Facebook to buy a stake in Jio could be a major move for the social media supergiant to tackle its top competitions in India such as ByteDance’s TikTok, Snapchat, Hike and more. The TikTok's parent company is reportedly said to have recently invested in several local startups including e-commerce platform Meesho and online learning start-up Unacademy. With the growing competition for both Facebook.com and Reliance Jio, this deal of 10 per cent stake in Jio may bring forth new developments.
Updated 21:14 IST, March 26th 2020