Battle Of The Titans
In early March, when the government was contemplating a nationwide lockdown to control the spread of coronavirus, billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s core team was in the last lap of negotiations with global tech giants Facebook, Intel, Qualcomm and a slew of foreign private equity investors, inviting them to invest in Jio Platforms (JPL), the telecom and digital subsidiary of Reliance Industries (RIL). Talks with Google were also shaping up, though there were differences on valuation. The lockdown had a devastating effect on the economy — factories grounded to a halt, migrant workers rushed to their home towns, the stock market crashed and banks counted on possible loan defaults. On March 23, RIL’s share crashed to ₹875 from its January high of around ₹1,500.
A month later, on April 22, JPL announced sale of 9.99 per cent stake to Facebook for ₹43,574 crore. Over the next
