New Delhi: Telecom major on Friday said US tech giant Google will invest around $1 billion in Bharti Airtel as part of its ‘Google for India Digitization Fund’, which will focus on affordable smartphones and India-specific ‘5G’. Use cases for ‘.
Alphabet Inc., which owns the Google search engine, will acquire a 1.28 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel at Rs 734 ($9.8) per share, according to Bloomberg, according to an exchange filing from Bharti Airtel on Friday. An additional $300 million would be for multi-year agreements, it said.
As a part of this programme, both the companies will focus on shaping and developing the cloud ecosystem in India, as per reports.
India is a major growth market for Google’s search and advertising businesses, as well as others such as Facebook, Amazon Inc. and Netflix. Bloomberg said in its report that Google had earlier invested in Mukesh Ambani’s digital unit.
Sunil Bharti Mittal, President, Bharti Airtel said in the statement, “Airtel and Google share a vision to grow India’s digital dividend through innovative products. Our future-ready network, digital platform, last mile delivery and payments ecosystem With Tantra, we look forward to working closely with Google to increase the depth and breadth of India’s digital ecosystem.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, said in a statement, “Our commercial and equity investment in Airtel is in line with our Google for India Digitization Fund to increase access to smartphones, enhance connectivity to support new business models, and help companies grow.” There is a continuation of the efforts on his digital transformation journey.”
Bharti Airtel shares rose 6 per cent in early trade on Friday after the company announced a strategic deal with Google. At 10.45 am, Airtel was trading at Rs 718 with a gain of 1.63 per cent.
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