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Google Buys 7.7% of Reliance's Digital Unit Jio for $4.5 billion

Google's investment in Jio Platforms is at a valuation of Rs 4.36 trillion ($58.01 billion) for the digital platform, the company said in a statement.
Reuters
Jul 15 2020
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Google's investment in Jio Platforms is at a valuation of Rs 4.36 trillion ($58.01 billion) for the digital platform, the company said in a statement.
Commuters are reflected on an advertisement of Reliance Industries' Jio telecoms unit, at a bus stop in Mumbai on February 21, 2017. Photo:Reuters/Shailesh Andrade/File Photo
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New Delhi: Reliance Industries on Wednesday said Alphabet Inc's Google will buy a 7.7% stake in its digital unit for $4.5 billion, winning the backing of another US tech giant after Facebook Inc in late April.

With Google's investment, strategic and financial investors have committed a total of Rs 1.52 trillion ($20.22 billion) in the last few months, Reliance chairman and billionaire tycoon Mukesh Ambani said at the company's annual shareholders meeting hosted via a webcast.

Google's investment in Jio Platforms is at a valuation of Rs 4.36 trillion ($58.01 billion) for the digital platform, the company said in a statement.

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The unit houses music and movie apps but its mainstay is telecoms firm Jio Infocomm – India's largest mobile carrier with more than 387 million users.

Also read: Four Reasons Why Facebook is Buying a Nearly 10% Stake in Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio

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The Reliance-Google announcement comes just days after Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said his company would invest $10 billion in India over the next five to seven years through equity deals and tie-ups.

The deal with Google will bolster Reliance's lofty tech ambitions, such as building smart homes, using solutions similar to Amazon.com Inc's Alexa voice assistant, connected cars and security systems.

The investment arms of chipmakers Qualcomm Inc's and Intel Corp have also bought stakes in Jio Platforms this month, at a time India is preparing to auction 5G airwaves to telecoms service providers.

This article went live on July fifteenth, two thousand twenty, at fourteen minutes past four in the afternoon.

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