Credit: DisneyUPDATE: The Walt Disney Company has officially confirmed that it is selling off its Indian operations to Reliance Industries, cementing a massive merger that has been months in the making. According to a press statement, Disney is merging with Viacom18 and Reliance to form Star India Private Limited, a new joint venture that will dominate the media landscape of the world’s largest market for years to come.
Interestingly, the terms of the deal are actually even less favorable to Disney than previously reported. While it was expected that Reliance would take a majority stake in the merger, it turns out that Viacom18 will hold the largest share at 46.82%, with Reliance at 16.34% and Disney at 36.84%.
That might look good on the surface, but Viacom18 is actually majority-owned by Reliance, definitely putting Disney in the place of junior partner.
Of the joint venture, Disney CEO Bob Iger said:
“India is the world’s most populous market, and we are excited for the opportunities that this joint venture will provide to create long-term value for the company. Reliance has a deep understanding of the Indian market and consumer, and together we will create one of the country’s leading media companies, allowing us to better serve consumers with a broad portfolio of digital services and entertainment and sports content.”
The Walt Disney Company is selling itself off to an even more powerful international corporation after years of attempting to control one of the world’s largest markets…and failing.
Although Disney remains one of the world’s premiere media companies (and one of history’s best-known brands), it has been struggling in recent years. A series of box office flops, dwindling park attendance numbers, and massive legal battles with the far-right Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have significantly weakened Disney and its business prospects. Disney CEO Bob Iger has recently claimed that the company has turned a financial corner, but there is one area it has never been able to conquer.
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That would be India, the world’s largest consumer market and a potential treasure trove of streaming subscribers for whatever media company can corner it. Currently, Disney, Amazon, Warner Bros. Discovery, and numerous other corporations have been trying to achieve dominance (and a stable subscriber base) for their own streaming service, and the Mouse is finally throwing in the towel. While Disney+ Hotstar initially was able to gain an audience in India, it has been diminishing returns for years.
For months now, Disney has been in talks to sell its Indiana operations to Reliance Industries Ltd., a huge Indian conglomerate headed by billionaire Mukesh Ambani with interests in mass media, telecommunications, energy, petrochemicals, natural gas, and much more. While Disney may have one of the world’s biggest catalogs of intellectual property and huge theme parks around the world, it is still dwarfed by Reliance; in 2023, Reliance reported a staggering $120 billion in revenue, compared to Disney’s $88.9.
Things are finally coming together for the two business behemoths, as Bloomberg reports that Disney and Reliance Industries have signed a binding pact to merge Indian operations, with the latter company taking the majority stake. While Disney will have a remaining presence in India, this deal, once it goes through, will essentially be handing over its Indian arm to Reliance Industries.
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Of course, Disney is having quite a few problems trying to divest itself from India. A huge deal fell through with Zee Entertainment, costing Disney billions in estimated value in the area; it is quite likely that the collapse of that attempted sale also damaged its negotiations with Reliance and could be why Disney is attempting to sell off even more of its properties in the country now, like Tata Play.
Disney is really trying to get out of India, and it sounds like it will soon be able to.
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