The deal, introduced greater than two years in the past, was perceived as essential for the survival of the businesses in a extremely aggressive market.
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Shares of India’s Zee Leisure jumped greater than 10% on Tuesday after a report that its $10 billion merger with Japanese tech big Sony could possibly be revived.
The Financial Instances, an Indian information publication, reported on Tuesday that Zee had re-engaged with Sony in a last-ditch try to salvage the deal, which was formally known as off final month.
Representatives from each side have met at varied areas throughout Mumbai as makes an attempt to revive the deal has gathered steam just lately, the ET reported.
Sony and Zee didn’t instantly reply to a CNBC request for remark.
Shares of Sony have been down greater than 1% in Japan on the market shut.
Sony first proposed to mix its India leisure enterprise with Zee in December 2021. The negotiations collapsed after greater than two years.
The Japanese tech big mentioned final month that it terminated the transaction as a result of “amongst different issues, the closing situations to the Merger weren’t happy” by the agreed cut-off date. Sony mentioned it had engaged “in good religion” in discussions to get an extension to the cut-off date.
Zee on the time mentioned that it denied all allegations made by Sony that it breached the merger settlement, including that it will take “acceptable authorized motion.” Zee was in search of a termination price of $90 million.
Final month, Zee sued Sony over the termination of the deal and urged the Japanese agency to revive the merger.
The union of Zee and Sony’s India subsidiary would have created a possible content material and leisure powerhouse in India. Zee owns a number of TV channels, a film studio and a streaming service. Sony would have had entry to Zee’s native content material, giving it an even bigger footing within the profitable Indian leisure market. Zee, which faces intense competitors at dwelling from gamers like Disney and Reliance Industries, would have benefitted from the backing of Sony.
