Amazon’s new India chief pulled plug on cricket, not the country

Manish Tiwary had only been in his new job as head of Amazon.com Inc.’s India business a couple of months when he faced a weighty decision: How aggressively should the US e-commerce giant bid for media rights to the Indian Premier League?

Securing digital streaming rights to the cricket tournament would be a huge coup, potentially luring hundreds of millions of viewers to Amazon. But Tiwary and his colleagues would have to bid against deep-pocketed giants like Reliance Industries Ltd. In a stunning move, Amazon pulled the plug before the auction started. Tiwary and senior management in Seattle decided those billions would be better spent on Amazon’s e-commerce business.