Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries today completed the acquisition of Network18 Media and its subsidiary TV18 Broadcast, the company said in a filing to the BSE.
The takeover was done through Independent Media Trust (IMT) of which RIL is the sole beneficiary.
[caption id=“attachment_85923” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Network18[/caption]
Apart from nominees of IMT, HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh and former chairman of McKinsey India,Adil Zainulbhai have been inducted as Independent Directors on the board of Network18 while Raghav Bahl will continue as non-executive Director on the board.
“With the completion of this transaction, IMT and RIL have become promoters of NW18 and TV18. The open offers to the public shareholders for acquisition of equity shares of NW18, TV18 and Infomedia as announced on May 29, 2014 by IMT are in process and the Draft letter of offer has been filed with SEBI for its comments,” Reliance said in a press release.
(Disclosure: Firstpost anf Firstbiz are published by Network 18 Media and Investments, which has been acquired by the Reliance Group through an open offer).