The Competition Commission of India (CCI) today approved the $8.5 billion merger between Reliance Industries and Disney's Indian media assets, subject to the compliance of voluntary modifications.

The deal, announced six months ago, has received approval from the CCI after both sides gave certain commitments.

The CCI announcement on social media X states,

“...proposed combination involving Reliance Industries Limited, Viacom18 Media Private Limited, Digital18 Media Limited, Star India Private Limited and Star Television Productions Limited, subject to the compliance of voluntary modifications."

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co and Khaitan & Co advised Reliance Industries and Viacom 18 on the Competition Law aspect of the deal.  

The SAM Competition team included Managing Partner Pallavi Shroff, Partners Shweta Shroff Chopra, Harman Singh Sandhu, Aman Singh Sethi and Atreyee Sarkar, Principal Associate Rahul Shukla and Associates Sanjana LB, Anik Bhaduri, Aryika Dadhwal, Mohsin Rahim and Janhavi Singh.

The Khaitan & Co team included Senior Partner Haigreve Khaitan and Partners Anisha Chand and Anshuman Sakle (Partner), along with Principal Associates Soham Banerjee and Alisha Mehra and Associates Rishabh Vohra and Yatharth V Singh.

AZB & Partners served as legal counsel to Disney on the transaction.

The Competition team was led by Senior Partner Ram Kumar Poornachandran along with senior associates Sanjeev Kumar, Shruthi Rao, Ruchi Khanna and associates Rishabh Jain, Nandini Modi, and Sevanshi Kamdar.

According to the deal, Reliance and its affiliates will own a 63.16 percent stake in the merged entity, which will include two streaming services and 120 television channels.