As part of its Google for India Digitization Fund, Google will invest up to $1 billion in a collaboration with Bharti Airtel. The transaction involves a $700 million investment to purchase a 1.28 percent stake in Airtel, as well as up to $300 million in possible multi-year commercial agreements. The Airtel Board of Directors authorised the preferential issue of up to 7.1 crore shares to Google at a price of Rs 734 per equity share, worth Rs 5,224.3 crore, on Friday. On the BSE, Airtel shares were trading 1.24 percent higher at Rs 716.00 on Friday morning.
“As part of this partnership, Google intends to invest up to $1 billion, as part of its Google for India Digitization Fund, which includes equity investment as well as a corpus for potential commercial agreements, to be identified and agreed on mutually agreeable terms over the course of the next five years,” Bharti said in a regulatory filing.
The telecom stated that they will collaborate with Google to develop best-in-class end-to-end solutions to meet consumer demands, deliver a positive customer experience, and contribute their knowledge to tackle challenges of affordability, access, and digital inclusion. Airtel and Google will collaborate to expand on Airtel’s vast portfolio of Android-enabled smartphones to consumers through creative affordability schemes as part of their first commercial deal.
“Together, the companies will continue to explore further opportunities to bring down the barriers of owning a smartphone across a range of price points, in partnership with various device manufacturers,” Airtel said.
