Google's purchase of 1.28% stake in Bharti Airtel approved by CCI

This investment by Google comes following a 4.5 billion dollars investment in Jio Platforms Ltd. the digital division of Reliance Industries Ltd, in July 2020. Both the investments are made through 'Google for India' Digitization fund.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI), India's antitrust watchdog, on Thursday authorized Google's purchase of 1.28 percent interest in telecom company Bharti Airtel (Airtel). According to the agreement signed between two companies, Google will buy a 1.28% stake in Bharti Airtel for 700 million dollars and invest 300 million dollars over the next five years in commercial arrangements in the areas of affordable mobile devices, 5G network and cloud technologies. Google LLC intends to purchase a non-controlling minority position in the Indian telecom operator, stated the press statement from CCI.

"The acquirer(Google) and target(Airtel) have executed an Investment Agreement (IA) per which the acquirer proposes to acquire a minority and non-controlling stake of 1.28% of equity share capital in the target. Along with the IA, the acquirer and the target through their affiliates have also entered into certain commercial deals. The parties also intend to enter into certain other commercial arrangements in future.The Commission approved the proposed combination on the basis of modifications offered by the acquirer." stated the press statement from CCI.

Google had stated earlier this year that it would invest 700 million dollars to purchase a 1.28 percent stake in Airtel at a cost of Rs 734 per share and up to 300 million dollars towards potential multi-year commercial agreements. Airtel's shares on Thursday shrunk 3.60% percent on BSE to finish at Rs 683.90 per share.

The partnership aims prioritize making smartphones widely accessible at reasonable prices, and it will keep exploring ways to build on its current partnerships to potentially co-create network domain use cases for 5G and other standards that are specific to India and speed up the cloud ecosystem for companies all over the country.

The most recent action by Google comes following a 4.5 billion dollars investment in Jio Platforms Ltd. the digital division of Reliance Industries Ltd, in July 2020. Both the investments are made through 'Google for India' Digitization fund.

Google will also spend an additional 300 million dollars through various other business deals in industries including the production of inexpensive smart phones and investing in cloud adoption. Google hopes that by making this investment, India's digital infrastructure will advance, creating demand for Google's goods and services, including cloud computing, mobile technology, apps and online advertising.