Asia's Richest Man To Buy Majority Stake in News Organization in 'Hostile' Takeover (techcrunch.com) 9
Adani Group said Tuesday it will buy a majority stake in NDTV, a high-profile Indian news house, in an apparent hostile takeover as the billionaire Gautam Adani expands his media ambitions. From a report: AMG Media Networks, Adani's unit, will indirectly purchase a 29.18% stake in New Delhi Television and launch an open offer to buy another 26% stake, the Indian conglomerate said. The open offer is expected to be worth $61.77 million, some 30% below the current market price. Founded three decades ago, NDTV is one of India's most popular news organizations and a rare property that has consistently taken a critical view of the ruling government's efforts. The New Delhi-headquartered business, which operates three TV news channels and maintains a large presence on the web, said Tuesday that neither the firm nor its founders held any conversation, gave consent or input for the majority stake acquisition.
that's fox undo undo! (Score:2)
that's fox undo undo!
Gautam Adani? (Score:3)
I had to look him up, since i had never heard of him, and probably neither have you. His Wikipedia Page [wikipedia.org] looks like it was entered by himself, and there's probably an army of people scrubbing the "bad" facts from it 24/7...
Just a few snippets from a random google search of "Gautam Adani Scandal":
"Adani engaged in broad-ranging bribery to conceal the illegal export of 7.7 million tonnes of iron ore . In 2011, the Ombudsman of the Indian state of Karnataka investigated the corruption, and discovered a staggering scale of bribery."
"The ascent of the Adani Group has been plagued with controversy and allegations ranging from fraud to environmental abuses. (named as "Modi's Rockefeller")"
So, basically nothing out of the ordinary for a very wealthy man.
India is now just like the West (Score:2)
This is just the Indian Bezos buying the Indian Washington Post.
Indians should be worried about the neutrality of their media as in the West we have no media neutrality left.
Re: (Score:2)
Kinda, but one difference is that this is TV news. Probably a lot of Indians of average economic status aren't going to take a daily newspaper for various reasons, but I bet they can find a way to watch TV. Even in the US, I don't know a lot of people who take the time to actually read the Washington Post.
They don't belong together (Score:2)
"High profile" and "60 million"
It seems that if you can buy it for 60 million, it can't be that high profile?
Re: They don't belong together (Score:2)
NDTV is only high profile in the minds of the extreme left in India.
The couple which founded it are extremely close to the left wing socialist party called the Indian National Congress.
The takeover is a lot more complicated than this summary makes it appear.
The founders took money as an interest free loan via a chain of shell companies which lead back to a rival conglomerate.
Both Adani and that rival are reviled by the same left wing party today and therefore by NDTV.
Around 3 years ago, a former intelligenc