Reliance Industries and Walt Disney complete $8.5 billion merger, Nita Ambani becomes chairperson…

Mumbai: Reliance Industries and Walt Disney have completed the $8.5 billion merger of their Indian media assets. The merger has been finalized and the Indian assets of both the media giants have been divided into three divisions. Each of these will have its own CEO. According to the company, the new divisions are entertainment, which includes Reliance's Colors TV channel and Disney's Star – Digital, which includes online streaming platforms JioCinema and Hotstar, and sports. The joint venture is controlled by Reliance Industries Limited and RIL has 16.34 percent stake, Viacom18 has 46.82 percent stake and Disney has 36.84 percent stake.

Nita Ambani will be the chairperson of this venture, while Uday Shankar will play the role of vice-chairman. Former Google executive Kiran Mani, who headed GeoCinema, will take charge of the digital organization. Reuters reported last month that Disney Hotstar CEO Sajith Sivanandan has resigned as the pace of business integration for the merger increases. Earlier it was reported that the merger of Jio Cinema and Disney+ Hotstar will form a single streaming app. It may be in India, whose name will be Jio Hotstar. But there is no clarity on this.

The release simply said that the combination of 'Star' and 'Colors' on the television side and 'Jio Cinema' and 'Hotstar' on the digital front will give viewers a wide choice of entertainment and sports content in India and globally. Kevin Vaz who is currently the top boss of Reliance's Viacom 18 Media. Will lead the entertainment division. Sanjog Gupta, head of sports at Disney's Indian media operations, will take charge of the sports division of the merged company.

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