According to foreign media reports, Google confirmed today that it will invest 4.5 billion US dollars in the Indian digital services company Jio Platforms in exchange for 7.7% of the company’s shares, valued at about 65 billion US dollars for the latter.
Yesterday, there were reports that Google is engaged in in-depth negotiations with Jio Platforms and plans to invest more than $4 billion in the latter. Jio Platforms is the digital services division of Reliance Industries Ltd. and the largest telecommunications operator in India.
Today, Google’s vice president Samer Samat confirmed the investment in a blog post. Less than four months ago, Facebook also said it would inject $5.7 billion into Jio Platforms.
Currently, Jio Platforms operates the Jio Infocomm telecommunications network. Since 2016, Jio Platforms has accumulated more than 388 million 4G users. Today, Jio Platforms has become India’s largest telecommunications company and also operates several applications and other services in the field of e-commerce and broadband.
Google said today that it plans to jointly develop an “entry-level affordable smartphone” with Jio Platforms, which will be optimized for Android and Play Store.
Samat said in his blog: “We are very happy to rethink how to make millions of users in India the owner of smartphones. This effort will unleash new opportunities to further promote a vibrant application ecosystem, And through innovation to promote the growth of India’s new economy.”
Samat added that most Indians are still unable to access the Internet and fewer people own smartphones.
On Monday, Google just announced that it will invest US$10 billion in India in the next five to seven years, focusing on promoting the digitization of the economy and creating India’s priority products and services. Samat said today that the investment in Jio Platforms is part of the plan.
Jio Platforms expressed its welcome to Google as its strategic investor. According to the agreement, Google will invest 337.37 billion Indian rupees and acquire 7.7% of Jio Platforms.
It is reported that India Reliance Industries Group plans to sell approximately 20% of the shares of Jio Platforms in order to raise funds for its debt-ridden parent company (India Reliance Industries Group). In recent months, investors have snapped up shares of Jio Platforms worth about $20 billion.
Among them, Intel said earlier this month that it will invest $250 million in Jio Platforms. Two days ago, Qualcomm announced that it would invest $97 million. Other US investors such as KKR, General Atlantic, Silver Lake, and Vista have already invested billions of dollars in Jio Platforms.
Last month, Mubadala, the UAE’s sovereign wealth fund, said it would invest US$1.2 billion in Jio Platforms, while Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund invested US$1.5 billion.
Less than four months ago, Facebook announced an injection of $5.7 billion into Jio Platforms, the largest transaction since Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion.
