Amazon India set to purchase MX Player: Report
Three sources aware of the discussions say that Amazon looks to be very close to purchasing MX Player, which is owned by Times Internet. This appears to be Amazon’s second attempt at acquiring the video streaming service, and the agreement appears to be nearly complete.
“Amazon India has been in late-stage talks to acquire MX Player in a distress sale,” said one of the sources requesting anonymity as talks are yet to be public. “The contours of the deal have been chalked out and Amazon has offered a term sheet to MX Player.”
In March of last year, Amazon India and the Times Internet-owned company held talks as well, but by July 2023, the talks had broken down. In January 2018, Times Internet purchased MX Player for a sum of $140 million.
Sources claim that in February of this year, new talks between the two businesses started.
“MX Player team will join Mini TV and its chief executive officer Karan Bedi is likely to join as director,” said another source who wished not to be named.
According to sources, Amazon’s Mini TV business in India will benefit from the acquisition.
“The size of the deal is around $50 million,” added the person quoted in the beginning of the story.
MX Media, the company that owned MX TakaTak, a short video entertainment app, is now the owner of MX Player. In February 2022, MX TakaTak and ShareChat—which was backed by Google—merged. Following the users’ transfer to Moj, ShareChat later shut down MX TakaTak. Additionally, the company led by Ankush Sachdeva wrote off its investment in MX TakaTak.
Requests submitted to MX Player and Amazon were not answered right away.
Should the deal close, Times Internet will have exited six subsidiaries in the last three years, including MX Player. In February 2022, the Gurugram-based business sold MX Takatak, and in May 2022, Swiggy bought DineOut. Roll-up unicorn e-commerce In December 2022, Times Internet sold MensXP, iDiva, and Hypp to Mensa. Additionally, Times Internet has been trying to sell its music streaming service Gaana. Although they had discussions with Airtel Wynk, those talks ended in failure.