We are delighted to announce that our partner Archana Balasubramanian has been quoted in an article ‘Will the $10 billion Zee-Sony merger pass or fail?’ published by Storyboard 18.
On being asked where the Zee-Sony deal headed, she said:
“Mergers are tricky. One entity that takes over is likely to dominate the other entity. We have seen in the past that after certain mergers, there were teams that just picked up their bags and left and started separate ventures because they are not able to coordinate or be part of the culture anymore. So in that backdrop, a merger in that sense is like an acquisition,”.
According to Balasubramanian, in this case, the agreement very clearly stipulates that the appointment of Puneet Goenka as the chairman and MD is a condition for the merger to go through, it seems opportunistic for it to not happen.
“This case may seem like an acquisition to the people within the organisation. Like Zee may feel that Sony is acquiring because they are trying to replace their key person and similarly Sony employees and vendors may also feel that way,’ she said.
As far as SEBI allegations are concerned, since there is no clear allegation that has come out, it is very hard to say there has been any kind of reputational damage or violation.
“It happens very often in the listed markets that promoters do get pulled up. This happened to even other stalwarts in the news industry very recently. So, just SEBI’s accusation should not be sufficient to remove someone from the helm of affairs,” Balasubramanian added.
Like Balasubramanian, most experts are in favour of honouring the initial terms of the merger.
Read the full article HERE.
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