Recently, Reliance Jio was in the news when social media giant Facebook decided to invest a whopping 5.7 billion dollars for a 9.99 percent stake in the telecom operator.?
And now, another American company is interested to take a bite of the Indian telecom disruptor.
Private equity firm Silver Lake has announced plans to invest Rs 5656 crore in Jio Platforms for a 1.15 percent stake in the Indian telecom giant. With this investment, the valuation of Jio now stands at $65 billion with a 12.5 percent premium to the value after Facebook¡¯s investment.
Silver Lake has made major investments in several popular brands over the years. Last month it invested in travels booking website Expedia and homestay startup Airbnb. In March this year, it invested $1 billion on microblogging platform Twitter.?
This will actually be the second time it is making any investments in India, after funding Bangalore-based commodity trading and risk management software startup Eka.
Egon Durban, co-chief executive and managing partner at Silver Lake, in a statement, ¡°Jio has ¡°brought extraordinary engineering capabilities to bear on bringing the power of low-cost digital services to a mass consumer and small businesses population¡±
He added, ¡°The market potential they are addressing is enormous, and we are honoured and pleased to have been invited to partner with Mukesh Ambani? and the team at Reliance and Jio to help further the Jio mission.¡±?
Jio head Mukesh Ambani said in another statement, ¡°Silver Lake has an outstanding record of being a valuable partner for leading technology companies globally. Silver Lake is one of the most respected voices in technology and finance. We are excited to leverage insights from their global technology relationships for the Indian Digital Society¡¯s transformation.¡±
What do you feel about Silver Lake¡¯s investment? Tell us in the comments below.?