What is the logic of the Adani group buying a stake in a media company, Quintillion?
Answer
Answer
To be fair, it is not only in green energy that the Reliance group and the Adani group are pitted against each other. They are now face to face on the media space too. Let me explain. Adani Group recently announced the acquisition of a minority stake in Quintillion Business Media, a company that was floated by media Moghul, Raghav Bahl. Incidentally, Raghav is one of the pioneers of the media business in digital media and television. A bit on Raghav.
For starters, Raghav Bahl is already an extremely well known and respected name in the media circles. Way back in 2000, when private business media was still an unknown quantity, Raghav was the one who brought CNBC and CNN into India via his Network 18 group. Subsequently, the suite of channels owned by Raghav Bahl were sold to the Reliance group, with the deal happening nearly 10 years back. Raghav later floated Quint.
For now the deal only pertains to a 20% stake in Quintillion Business Media (QBM). By the way, QBM is the digital business news platform of the media venture floated by Raghav Bahl. Apart from Quint which jointly owns Bloomberg Quint, it also owns other niche digital properties like The Quint, Quintype Technologies, News-minute and Youth-ki-awaaz. The deal with Adani group gives Raghav Bahl a much larger balance sheet.
The deal will be executed through Adani Media Ventures, a company dedicated to pioneering new-age media across different platforms. Adani group believes that today media segment has gone beyond television and encompasses a variety of digital properties. It is interesting that Adani Media Ventures is headed by Sanjay Pugalia. Now, Sanjay is an old CNBC and Quint hand. Adani wants to drastically change how news is delivered and consumed in India.
The similarities don’t just end there. Quintillion Business Media is being headed by Anil Uniyal. Now Anil Uniyal is again a veteran CNBC India hand, so for both Sanjay Pugalia and Anil Uniyal, it is back to familiar business territory. Last year, there strong reports of Adani group likely to make a bid for NDTV group, but it did not materialize. Adani group is known for speed and aggression and that is likely to be in evidence in this business line also.