JIO- ITS DEALS IN THE LAST FOUR WEEKS
Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited is an Indian telecommunications company and subsidiary of Jio Platforms, headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It uses voice over LTE to provide voice service on its 4G network with coverage across all 22 telecom circles. The company was started on 15 February 2007 as Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited and within 3 years, Reliance Industries (RIL) bought a 95% stake in Infotel Broadband Services Limited (IBSL) for ₹4,800 crores. Later this telecom subsidiary of RIL was renamed as Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL) in January 2013. In September 2016, the company commercially launched its 4G services.
On 25 January 2016, Jio launched its LYF smartphone series starting with Water 1. Three more handsets were released, namely Water 2, Earth 1, and Flame 1. In May 2016, Jio had launched a bundle of multimedia apps on Google Play as part of its upcoming 4G services. However, the apps required a user to have a Jio SIM card in order to use them. Prior to its pan-India launch of 4G data and telephony services, Jio started to provide free Wi-Fi hotspot services in cities throughout India. In March 2016, Jio provided free Wi-Fi internet to spectators at six cricket stadiums hosting the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 matches. Because of a good marketing strategy, Jio succeeded in acquiring 16 million subscribers within the first month of its launch. Just about 83 days since its launch and the number of subscribers crossed the milestone of 50 million. Subsequently, its subscribers doubled to 100 million by 22 February 2017, and by October 2017 it had about 130 million subscribers.
The world is seeing India as a land of opportunities amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. It is evident since the American social media company Facebook, Inc. has bought a 9.9% stake in Jio in April 2020, which has been the highest ever foreign direct investment in the Indian technology sector. Within days of Facebook’s share acquisition, the US private equity firm Silver Lake invested Rs 5,655.75 crore in Jio Platforms and bought a 1.15% stake. This was followed by US-based Vista Equity Partners buying a 2.32% stake in Jio Platforms for Rs 11,367 crore. Finally, on Sunday, Reliance Industries announced the sale of 1.34% stake in its digital unit to General Atlantic for Rs 6,598.38 crore which injected a total of Rs 67,194.75 crore since its last four deals.
With the need of online facilities post covid, it is a great opportunity for jio to invest and provide the best to the public.
