Google is in view of acquiring a stake in Vodafone Group Plc’s fighting Indian business, the Financial Times reported, joining Facebook Inc. in investing in the world’s fastest-developing mobile arena. Google may take a stake of around 5 percent in Vodafone Idea, a partnership between the united kingdom telecom carrier and therefore the Aditya Birla Group, though the deliberations are at a beginning period, the FT cited people aware of the matter as saying.
For a 5 percent stake, Google will need to shell out $110 million. Its Nasdaq-recorded parent Alphabet includes a market cap of $968.05 billion. Alphabet finished the January-March quarter with ‘cash and marketable securities’ of roughly $117 billion. In Vodafone Idea, the investment will pit the search giant against Facebook which has picked up a stake in Jio platforms, the firm that houses India’s most youthful yet greatest telecom company, Reliance Jio. Due to the outbreak of Covid19, Indian Startups hoping for Mergers and Acquisition.
According to a worldwide analyst, the money that Vodafone Idea would get from a 5% stake sale would not move the needle in terms of the telco’s liabilities, such as the AGR payment. Google needs to invest more than $500 million to take control of the telco as Vodafone Idea has a large amount spectrum.
Recently, Airtel’s stock touched an all-time high on strong India results for the fiscal fourth quarter, backed by the best ARPU within the industry. Its parent Bharti Telecom earlier in the week raised $1.1 billion by selling a 2.75% stake within the telco to overseas and local investors like Fidelity and Blackrock. But Airtel, with a market cap of `3.07 lakh crore, is way costlier than Vodafone Idea, so is Jio Platforms, noted analysts.
Facebook has announced to acquire a 10% stake in Reliance Industries’ Jio Platforms for $5.7 billion, which rose to Rs 5.15 lakh crore in subsequent stake sales. The Facebook Jio deal may help in deepening financial inclusion as 400 million users of WhatsApp, may leverage Facebook’s Whatsapp pay-UPI platform said, experts. Recently, BCG-Facebook has come up with a report on how consumer behavior has changed after the outbreak of Covid19.
