Zee-Invesco row ended deal talks; no hostile takeover plans: RIL

The corporate battle between Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL) and its largest shareholder, Invesco, took a new turn Wednesday morning. Invesco revealed that it had facilitated talks for a merger between media companies owned by Reliance Industries and the Zee Group in February.

A few hours later, Reliance Industries, which owns Network18 Media and its subsidiary TV18 Broadcast, itself stepped into the long-drawn corporate war. In a statement, RIL said it was in dialogue for acquiring ZEEL but did not go ahead with the transaction after talks between Invesco and the Zee promoters broke down. It added that it respects all founders and has never resorted to any hostile transactions in the past and hence it did not proceed further.