Amazon in talks to buy stake in Bharti Airtel

New Delhi, June 4 (IANS) E-commerce giant Amazon is in talks to purchase a stake worth at least $2 billion in telecom major Bharti Airtel.According to reports, the Jeff Bezos-led Amazon would acquire around 5 per cent stake based on the current market value of India's third largest telecom company in terms of subscribers.Describing the reports as speculations, an Amazon spokesperson said: "We don't comment on speculation about what we may or may not do in future."An Airtel spokesperson said: "We routinely work with all digital and OTT players and have deep engagement with them to bring their products, content and services for our wide customer base. Beyond that there is no other activity to report."Reports suggested that the talks are in initial stages currently. The talks come at atime when Jio Platforms has attracted several investors in the past one month led by Facebook which took up around 10 per cent stake.In just around a month, RIL has sold over 17 per cent stake in Jio Platforms for a combined Rs 78,562 crore.
--IANS rrb/sn/vd