Industrialist Gautam Adani is set to enter the business news vertical with Raghav Bahl, the erstwhile founder of Network18.
Adani Media Ventures has signed a binding term sheet to acquire an undisclosed minority stake in Quintillion Business Media (QBM), an indirect subsidiary of publicly listed new-age digital media group Quint Digital Media.
The move follows the news of breaking up of an almost six-year-old joint venture – BloombergQuint — between Bloomberg and Bahl’s Quintillion Media, where Bloomberg Media owned 26% stake.
Quint Digital informed stock exchanges that the proposed transaction with the Adani Group is only for QBM, which is a digital business news platform, and not in relation to other digital media or media tech properties owned by Quint Digital, including The Quint, Quintype Technologies, the new minute and Youth ki awaaz.
The transaction is subject to customary due diligence and entering of definitive documents and as of now, a memorandum of understanding has been signed by Quint Digital with Adani Properties for the proposed sale of minority stake held by Quintillion Media (material subsidiary) in QBM.
“Adani Media Ventures intends to lead the path for new age media across different platforms. The adoption of technology and the increased ability of our nation to consume information has dramatically transformed the way media is expected to disseminate authentic information. This is exactly what Adani Media Ventures aims to do,” said Sanjay Pugalia, CEO, Adani Media Ventures.
Incidentally, Pugalia had stepped down as president of Quint Digital Media in September last year, to join Adani Media Ventures as its chief executive and editor-in-chief to lead the Group’s media related initiatives.
“I have had the privilege of working with QBM’s talented, credible and diverse team. This relationship between Adani Media Ventures and QBM marks a strong beginning of Adani Group’s foray into Indian media,” Pugalia stated.
QBM is a business and financial news company and operates Bloomberg|Quint.
“We are delighted to welcome the Adani Group as an investor in QBM. Given the proven execution record of the Adani group, their support to fulfill the ambitions of QBM will lay the foundation for accelerating the growth of the business and scale of QBM’s high quality content for the Indian audiences,” Anil Uniyal, CEO, QBM, said.
In a separate disclosure to the bourses, Quint said that Bloomberg Media and Quintillion Media will restructure their partnership in India, ending their equity joint venture in favor of a new content license agreement.
Quintillion Media and Bloomberg Media had formed a 74:26 JV in April 2016 and planned to launch a business news channel and portal under BloombergQuint. This is the first time Bloomberg invested in a partnership anywhere.
While the portal was launched in 2017, the company couldn’t procure a license to run a TV channel from the ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB).
“We have valued our relationship with the Quintillion Media team. While we have mutually decided to shift the focus of our work together, Bloomberg Media remains committed to our presence in India and look forward to a continued relationship with Quint,” added M Scott Havens, CEO, Bloomberg Media.
“Our joint venture with Bloomberg Media was the embodiment of resilient energy. Our digital-only premium subscription product has quickly become the market leader. Even as our terms of engagement with Bloomberg Media have changed, we look forward to imparting a new energy and spirit to the new website,” said Raghav Bahl, co-founder, Quintillion Media.
