Sony says merger talks with Zee Entertainment will continue till January 20

Sony says merger talks with Zee Entertainment will continue till January 20

Sony Group has mentioned that the talks with Zee Entertainment with regards to the proposed $10 billion merger are ongoing and that they will continue till January 20, according to Nikkei.

The news comes a day after Zee Entertainment issued a clarification on news reports which highlighted Sony’s plans to pull the plug on the merger, calling them “baseless” and “factually incorrect.”

Zee Entertainment had also mentioned that they are committed to completion of the merger and are working towards a successful completion of the same.

The merger between Sony and Zee has been in the works since 2021.

A Bloomberg report on Monday evening had highlighted Sony’s plans to pull the plug on the merger and send Zee a termination notice by January 20. A point of contention, according to the report was that Sony was against Punit Goenka leading the merged entity.

CNBC-TV18 had not independently verified the report. “If the deal falls apart, there is nothing to gain either for Zee or Sony. The stock price will correct even more from the current levels, the minority are at a disadvantage. Even Sony, for that matter – although it’s not a listed company, but if Disney and Viacom18 will come together, their competitive position will weaken. So even from their standpoint, it is in their interest to come together,” Jinesh Joshi of Prabhudas Lilladher told CNBC-TV18 on Wednesday.

Joshi further said that Zee’s shares can fall between 30% to 40% in case the deal does not go through. Shares of Zee Entertainment are trading at the day’s high, up 3.3% at ₹264.75.