Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has been in talks to acquire Walt Disney Co but the talks were not fruitful. Though they parted ways, the recent development says that Reliance and Disney signed a binding agreement to merge their operations in India as per the recent report. The report also said that Reliance will hold 61 percent of the share and the 39 percent share will be given to Disney. Walt Disney Co agreed to sell off their 61 percent stake to Viacom 18 for Rs 33000 crores (3.9 billion USD). Viacom 18 is owned by Mukesh Ambani, the Chairman of Reliance Industries Limited.
Walt Disney Co has not been active in acquiring the digital rights of any feature films or they did not sign any new web-based projects as they wanted to sell the stake. This deal is a major breakthrough in the entertainment industry. As per the reports, Walt Disney Co will be back into active business in India from April this year. Sony had earlier plans to ink a deal with Zee Studios but the talks were not successful. Disney Plus Hotstar lost record number of subscribers after the digital platform lost the streaming rights of IPL to Jio.
