The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has said that it has approved Google to pick up 7.73 per cent stake in Reliance Industries’ Jio Platforms Ltd. (JPL) for Rs 33,737 crore, facilitating the internet giant and India’s largest mobile network operator to develop and launch Android smartphones in India.
“Commission approves acquisition of 7.73% equity share capital of Jio Platforms by Google” the watchdog wrote on Twitter.
Google will be making an investment of Rs 33,737 crore into the digital arm of Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), JPL through its wholly-owned subsidiary Google International LLC (GIL). The investment comes at a time when there is intense scrutiny over the impact of global companies, including the US-based firms, on smaller ones. Earlier, the US Department of Justice had stated that its investigators found Google acted unlawful in maintain its dominant position in search and advertising on the internet.
After the investments of Facebook, Silver Lake Partners (made two investments), Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic, KKR, Mubadala, ADIA, TPG, L Catterton, PIF, Intel Capital and Qualcomm Ventures, and now, Google became the 14th investor to invest in RIL’s Jio Platforms.
So far, Jio Platforms has raised a funding of more than Rs 1.52 lakh crore by divesting minority stakes to multiple technological firms including tech giants, private equity players and sovereign wealth funds.