Google will invest $1 Billion in India’s telecom operator Bharti Airtel. The investment includes a $700 million equity investment in Airtel at a price of 734 rupees per share and $300 million towards implementing commercial agreements. Google gets 1.28% ownership in Airtel.
Soon after the deal was announced, Airtel shares went up. At the time of writing this article, Bharti Airtel stocks were trading at Rs. 721.
Google and Airtel will work together to explore more opportunities in the Indian market. The primary goal will be to bring down the cost of owning a smartphone in India.
Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Airtel said, “Airtel and Google share the vision to grow India’s digital dividend through innovative products. With our future-ready network, digital platforms, last-mile distribution and payments ecosystem, we look forward to working closely with Google to increase the depth and breadth of India’s digital ecosystem.”
Mr. Pichai added, “Our commercial and equity investment in Airtel is a continuation of our Google for India Digitization Fund,s efforts to increase access to smartphones, enhance connectivity to support new business models, and help companies on their digital transformation journey.”
This investment is part of Google’s $10 billion ‘Google for India Digitization Fund’, which was announced back in 2020.
The deal will be finalized after it gets regulatory approvals.
