Richest Asian, Mukesh Ambani is on a shopping spree in race against Amazon

Bloomberg Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest man who spent the early few months of the pandemic raising more than $20 billion by selling stakes in his technology venture, is now on a shopping spree.

The Indian billionaire is looking to acquire several local online retailers to help expand product offerings, people familiar with the matter said, as he races to build his e-commerce platform and compete against Amazon.com Inc.

Reliance Industries Ltd, Ambani’s oil, retail and telecommunications conglomerate, is in various stages of negotiations to either buy out or purchase stakes in Urban Ladder, an online furniture seller, Zivame, a lingerie maker, and Netmeds, which delivers medicine, the people said, asking not to be identified as the talks are confidential. There’s no certainty the deliberations may result in a deal, they added.