After Reliance Jio, Google in talks to invest big in Airtel

After its near Rs 34,000 crore investment in Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Platforms, American internet giant Alphabet Inc’s Google could well be on its way to making “substantial investments, running into several thousands of crores of rupees”, in Bharti Airtel, Jio’s main rival, reports Pankaj Doval.

The Sundar Pichai-led US technology behemoth is in “advanced stage of negotiations” with Airtel for the “past nearly one year”, and the deal size could be “substantially large”, top sources in the know of the developments told TOI.

Deal would give boost to Airtel | page 17

The contours of the partnership are being worked upon for months as top executives from both companies, and their internal and external legal and M&A teams are thrashing out the finer points of the arrangement.