Debt is the key in the story. You cannot spend the money if you don't have it.
Unless you issue it.
Inside the Network18 takeover
11–20 of 23 posts
Re: Inside the Network18 takeover
#12Rajeep Sardesai standing by the spirit of journalism? That's a laugh.
Re: Inside the Network18 takeover
#13Re: Inside the Network18 takeover
#14Re: Inside the Network18 takeover
#15I don't think this is the right forum to post it (though I agree that the article raises some very pertinent questions)
why is it not for this forum ?
Because it ultimately is a story of a corporate takeover. It is not as if they didn't had the control earlier. Reliance was a significant stakeholder of the company earlier too.
Re: Inside the Network18 takeover
#16I don't think this is the right forum to post it (though I agree that the article raises some very pertinent questions)
This is where selective censorship and commoditization of mass opinions begins. These are the most important stories. A famous author once said that to trade underlying agendas and flow of control, follow the money.
Thats the point, you think it will start now, but the truth is that selective censorship is live media is a norm, and the Breaking News culture has a lot to contribute to it too. Even if not through direct control (flow of money and ownership), media can be easily arm twisted at times, provided the one twisting the arm knows the pressure points.
There have been in past a lots of reports about malpractices prevalent in media. Selective/biased reporting against political parties, journalists making deals with sting operations as leverages, paid news, etc.
And thus, to me, this is merely transfer of control. And thats exactly why I think this report is not apt for this forum, as although it presents quite a legitimate picture about take over of one network by a corporate giant, it is just a small pixel in an overall huge picture about the degradation of live & electronic media.
Re: Inside the Network18 takeover
#17One would tend to question certain events when lots of people that mint has spoken to, do not want to be named.
We do not have a whistle-blower's protection act to being with, hence a large room for exploitation
Re: Inside the Network18 takeover
#18For those of us who are not familiar with the Indian political and business background of this story and the characters, can someone summarize?
Some parts translate pretty clearly to a naive reader - high-growth startup accrues too much debt in acquisitions and expansion, some of the new ventures lose money, takes on a high-profile investor and restructures to stabilize, investor takes over the company and kicks out the founder. Others are less so - references to Reliance's place in the political sphere, something about gas prices(?) which I presume Reliance has something to do with, a new political movement that is apparently supported by some of the people in the story but not others.
Re: Inside the Network18 takeover
#19For those of us who are not familiar with the Indian political and business background of this story and the characters, can someone summarize? Some parts translate pretty clearly to a naive reader - high-growth startup accrues too much debt in acquisitions and expansion, some of the new ventures lose money, takes on a high-profile investor and restructures to stabilize, investor takes over the company and kicks out…
A lot happened in India around the recently concluded elections. This resulted in the loss of the ruling party, Congress, It lost so bad it could not form an opposition in the house. The winner, BJP, won with unprecedented margin (at least in the last few decades)
One of the major reason for the downfall was growing discontent, anger among the people against corruption, crime and inflation etc.
A new political party which calls itself, Aam Admi(Common Man)Party, started by Arvind Kejriwal, emerged by raising its voice against corruption. Multi-billion dollar scams were exposed frequently.
The party projected itself as anti-corruption and targeted Congress, and several businesses. It raised fund through people and media propagated their message. It continued to expose and openly question government expenses. They targeted Reliance, the largest business conglomerate, several times.
Re: Inside the Network18 takeover
#20For those of us who are not familiar with the Indian political and business background of this story and the characters, can someone summarize? Some parts translate pretty clearly to a naive reader - high-growth startup accrues too much debt in acquisitions and expansion, some of the new ventures lose money, takes on a high-profile investor and restructures to stabilize, investor takes over the company and kicks out…
In addition to the previous comment, this new party (AAP) accused the two other main political parties of being in collusion with Reliance to fix the price of natural gas rather high. This is the crony capitalism angle and this, supposedly resulted in the animosity between AAP and Reliance.
However, these are all accusations made during a vehemently charged election atmosphere. Take them with a pinch of salt.