The Walt Disney Company on Wednesday announced a merger with Reliance Industries, India's biggest conglomerate, in an $8.5 billion mega-deal.
The merger will combine Disney's Star India and Reliance's Viacom18 units into the newly created Star India joint venture. The merger will end Disney's decades-long solo effort to gain a foothold in the Indian entertainment market. The joint venture is expected to bring in 750 million viewers in India, the Walt Disney Company said in a statement.
The transaction is still pending approval from regulatory bodies and company shareholders. The deal is expected to be completed in the last quarter of 2024 or early 2025.
Behind the Merger
Following the completion of the merger, Reliance, which is led by Asia's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, will be Disney's senior partner in the deal. As such, Reliance and Viacom18 will hold 63% of the new venture, and Disney will hold 37%.
Additionally, Disney will have three directors on the board of the joint venture under the current merger agreement. Reliance will have five seats. Two other independent directors will also join the board.
"India is the world's most populous market, and we are excited for the opportunities that this joint venture will provide to create long-term value for the company," said Bob Iger, CEO of the Walt Disney Company. "Reliance has a deep understanding of the Indian market and consumer, and together we will create one of the country's leading media companies, allowing us to better serve consumers with a broad portfolio of digital services and entertainment and sports content."
Disney first came to India in 1993 and found a distributor to broadcast some of its content. Its streaming platform, Disney+, gained 162 million subscribers in the country during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it lost almost $500 million worldwide in pursuit of viewers at the time. By the summer of 2022, Disney had lost over $11 billion since it launched Disney+, according to the New York Times.
Disney was hit even harder in 2022 after it lost the digital rights to stream the Indian Premier League cricket matches to Reliance. This was followed by another blow in March when Warner Bros Discovery, which is the parent company of HBO and CNN, moved its content to JioCinema.
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