Sony, Zee merger collapsing?
January 9, 2024
By Chris Forrester
Sony’s India channels and studio division is reportedly on the brink of pulling the plug on its much-delayed merger with Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL).
Sony is seemingly fed up with the failure by ZEEL to fulfil several pre-agreed conditions for the merger to take place.
The merger itself has been due to be wrapped for many months yet deadlines have continually been missed.
Not helping matters are remaining legal problems which revolve around ZEEL and in particular that of founder Subhash Chandra and his son Punit Goenka. Goenka was due to head up the merged business despite ZEEL only holding 3.99 per cent of the equity in the combined business.
On December 20th 2023 ZEEL formally told the Bombay Stock Exchange that it is entering into a good faith agreement with Sony, and reflected a contractual obligation under the Merger Cooperation Agreement (MCA) signed between both parties in December 2021.
Impetus for the merger to wrap is not helped by an increasingly negative sentiment coming from Sony’s US headquarters, which has grown tired of the never-ending delays from ZEEL.