CCI thumbs up google international’s investment in Bharti Airtel

According to the agreement signed between the two firms, Google will buy a 1.28% stake in Bharti Airtel for $700 million and invest $300 million over the next five years in commercial arrangements in the areas of affordable mobile devices, 5G network and cloud technologies.

The Competition Commission of India on 30 June approved Google international’s buy of 1.28 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel. Earlier in 28 January, Google announced that it will invest as much as $1 billion in Bharti Airtel Ltd as the Internet giant redoubles efforts to increase smartphone access and accelerate digital transformation in India.

According to the agreement signed between the two firms, Google will buy a 1.28% stake in Bharti Airtel for $700 million and invest $300 million over the next five years in commercial arrangements in the areas of affordable mobile devices, 5G network and cloud technologies.

Airtel will sell shares to Google at ₹734 apiece, the company said in an exchange filing on January, 2022. Meanwhile, Airtel’s shares shrunk 3.60% to ₹683.90 on BSE on Thursday.

With this investment, Google is aiming at developing the digital infrastructure in India, which will, in turn, generate demand for its products and services, including cloud computing, mobile devices, apps and digital advertisements.

The latest move by Google follows a $4.5 billion investment in Reliance Industries Ltd’s digital unit, Jio Platforms Ltd, in July 2020. Both the investments are routed through the Google for India Digitization Fund.

On the other side, Bharti Airtel chief executive Gopal Vittal had said the company has no plan to build smartphones with Google but will work to increase smartphone adoption among consumers as part of the strategic partnership.

“We have mentioned we are not keen on a subsidy game, but equally, we are going to be competitive in the market; so wherever there is an incentive to be given, we have developed the software capability to target it into a device in order to be really smart and minimize the economic cost of that,” Vittal said.