Google to Invest $4.48 Billion in India's Jio Platforms
July 15 2020 - 6:10AM
Dow Jones News
By Ben Otto
Google will invest 337.37 billion rupees ($4.48 billion) in Jio
Platforms Ltd., becoming the latest foreign company to take a stake
in the Indian telecommunications and technology giant.
Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Jio's parent company, Reliance
Industries Ltd., said in a shareholders meeting Wednesday that
Google will take a 7.7% stake in Jio.
Jio and Google will work together to build an Android-based
smartphone operating system as part of efforts to introduce
low-cost 4G and 5G smartphones, he added.
Jio has raised billions of dollars from leading technology and
private equity firms around the world this year. The investment by
Alphabet Inc.'s Google follows Facebook Inc., Silver Lake, Vista
Equity Partners, KKR & Co., General Atlantic LLC, the Abu Dhabi
Investment Authority, sovereign investor Mubadala Investment Co.
and Qualcomm Ventures.
Reliance has spent more than $30 billion building upstart mobile
operator Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., which is part of Jio
Platforms. Jio has attracted more than 388 million subscribers with
inexpensive mobile-data plans and is now moving into e-commerce, as
legions of people in the country of 1.3 billion begin transacting
online for the first time.
Mr. Ambani, also Reliance's largest shareholder, said the
company has become debt-free ahead of schedule. He added that Jio
has developed a 5G system and will launch 5G services in India.
Write to Ben Otto at ben.otto@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 15, 2020 05:55 ET (09:55 GMT)
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