Despite the collapse of its $10 billion merger plans with Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEE), Sony Corporation has asserted it is aggressively considering alternative opportunities for its India media and entertainment business.
“In the long term, India remains a promising market,” Nikkei Asia quoted Hiroki Totoki, president, COO, and CFO of Sony, as having said while answering an investor’s question during the earnings call after the conglomerate declared its results for the quarter ended December 31, 2023.
Totoki assured that the setback with Zee will not hinder the company’s investment strategy.
“Therefore, we will try to seek various opportunities. And if we can find another opportunity that would replace this type of plan, we will look into that, and we will also continue to look into organic growth and our strategy,” he added.
Totoki’s assertions notwithstanding, the fact of the matter is that “another opportunity” just does not exist currently in the Indian media and entertainment space that offers any real scale.
Totoki admitted as much when he said: “So at the moment, we don’t have any concrete plans.”
Totoki also assured the investors that the amount of money that was expected to be used for that merger isn’t going to change capital allocation or its behavior in investment.
On January 22, Sony officially notified ZEE off its plans to call off the merger between its India unit and the media network, ending a two-year long saga. The proposed merger was first announced in December 2021.
Sony cited Zee’s failure to fulfil certain financial terms outlined in the deal and provide a viable plan to rectify the situation as its justification for walking away from the merger plan.
In response, Zee refuted the allegations in a letter addressed to Sony, and accused the Japanese conglomerate of acting in ‘bad faith’ by calling off the merger.
