Today, Facebook announced $5.7 billion or Rs. 43,574 crore investment in Jio Platforms Limited, part of Reliance Industries Limited. The investment values the Jio Platforms at Rs 4.62 lakh crore ($65.95 billion) pre-money enterprise value. So, the investment by Facebook turns out to be for 9.99% equity stake. This makes Facebook the largest minority shareholder in Jio Platforms Limited. It makes Facebook the largest minority shareholder in the company.
“Reliance Industries Limited, Jio Platforms Limited, and Facebook, Inc. today announced the signing of binding agreements for an investment of Rs. 43,574 crore by Facebook into Jio Platforms,” RIL said in a statement on Wednesday.
Reliance Jio began commercial option in the second half of 2016 and ut became the top the top telecom operator in the country in just 4 years. Jio has brought more than 388 million people online and made mobile data much cheaper in India than it used to be. The company has also pushed the 4G revolution across the country.
It is worth nothing that Reliance Jio also owns music streaming service JioSaavn, broadband business, on-demand live television service JioTV, Jio Pay and smartphones.
Along with this deal, Reliance Retail and WhatsApp have also entered into a commercial partnership agreement. This will boost Reliance Retail’s New Commerce business on the JioMart platform using WhatsApp. JioMart will use WhatsApp to communicate and support small businesses on WhatsApp.