Sony Group Corp has officially notified Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited is planning to shut it down Fusion The two-year acquisition saga between its Indian unit and the media network ended, leaving Zee vulnerable to competition in the form of rivals.
The Japanese entertainment giant sent a ending The letter was written to Zee on Monday morning and is expected to be disclosed to the exchange later, said people familiar with the plan, who asked not to be identified because the announcement has not yet been made public.
According to the letter seen by Bloomberg, Sony cited non-fulfillment of the terms of the merger agreement as the reason for the termination.
The termination comes after a standoff between the companies over Zee’s chief executive officer Punit Goenka He will lead the merged entity amid a probe into his conduct by India’s capital markets regulator. The impasse now appears to have scuttled a deal that would have created a $10 billion media giant with the financial muscle to rival global powerhouses Netflix Inc and Amazon.com Inc.
The termination letter from Sony came after a 30-day grace period ended over the weekend after the two parties could not reach an agreement by the deadline set at the end of December.
A Sony spokesperson declined to comment. A representative for Zee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bloomberg News reported on January 8 that Sony was planning to cancel the merger after the two parties failed to resolve the leadership dispute. Zee later said that they were still in talks to complete the merger.
The last-stage tussle over leadership was the biggest hurdle for the deal – Zee was insisting that Goenka would lead the new entity as agreed in the 2021 agreement, while Sony was wary of his appointment given the regulatory probe against him. Was.