According to Bloomberg, Sony has called off the $10 billion merger between Zed and its India division, following a two-year standoff. Zed received a termination letter from Sony early on Monday, and the company is anticipated to notify the exchange of this. The reason behind Sony's decision to terminate the deal was "conditions of the merger agreement not met".
The dismissal comes after a standoff between the two businesses over Punit Goenka, the CEO of Zed, and his role leading the combined company during SEBI's investigation into his behavior. The agreement, which would have established a $10 billion media behemoth with the financial clout to challenge global heavyweights Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., now looks to have been derailed by the impasse.
After a 30-day grace period ended over the weekend due to the inability of the parties to agree on a deadline established in late December, Sony sent out the termination letter. This led to a last-minute struggle over the two-year-old merger proposal, which has already experienced a good deal of turmoil and delays.
In order to establish a media conglomerate with enormous viewership and pricing power in the nation of more than 1.4 billion people, Sony and Zed signed a merger agreement.
A failed transaction would make both parties more exposed at a time when the billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd. is in the process of merging with the India division of Walt Disney Co.
