Facebook tries for India (again)
Emailed on March 27th 2020 in The Friday Forward
Facebook is in talks to buy a 10% stake in Indian telecom operator Reliance Jio from Reliance Industries, per the FT.
This could become Facebook’s second-largest acquisition ever, behind WhatsApp, based on bank analyst estimates that Jio is worth around $60 billion.
According to Ina Fried at Axios, "Facebook has long sought to invest in big markets where Internet connectivity is sparse, expensive, or both — figuring that a boost in Internet usage will end up resulting in more users. Its last approach, subsidizing free use of Facebook, was poorly received in India. This would appear to be a different tact to achieve the same goal.”
