Hostile Takeover Of NDTV: A Legal Evil?

Deepak Rathore, B.B.A. L.L.B., O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat

ABSTRACT

The trail of hostile takeovers continues in the world. Adani Enterprises made an announcement that it has acquired a 29.18% stake in NDTV, and after that, Mr. Gautam Adani launched an open offer to acquire 26% more stake in NDTV. The open offer concluded recently by tendering 8.26% more stake to Mr. Adani. Radhika Roy and Prannoy Roy, the founder-promoter of NDTV gave an official statement stating that everything happened without their knowledge, but the terms of the loan agreement suggest the contrary. The paper touches upon various interrelated issues involved in the takeover of NDTV. The takeover of NDTV may be unethical but it is legal. It possibly marks the end of institutional journalism in India. The former owners may say that they were unaware of the whole fiasco, but the terms of the loan agreement suggest that the stake was sold a decade ago itself due to their lack of due diligence in comprehensively assessing the terms of the loan agreement.