Billionaire Gautam Adani to Control 65% of News Service NDTV as Founders Sell Share

Several months after making a hostile takeover bid for New Delhi Television (NDTV), one of India’s most trusted news sources, the Adani Group will control nearly 65% of the company.

Swati Bhat

The Adani Group is chaired by billionaire Gautam Adani, the richest man in Asia and the third richest man in the world.

In August, Adani’s AMG Media Networks Limited (AMNL) acquired some 29% of NDTV indirectly, by buying out loans to the company and after an open offer to acquire more of the company, owned a 37% stake in the company, becoming the single largest shareholder in the process.

NDTV communiqued in a statement at the time that the loan buyout “was executed without any input from, conversation with, or consent of the NDTV founders.”

On Friday, NDTV founders Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy decided to sell 27.26% of their 32.26% share in the company to AMNL, it was disclosed in NDTV regulatory filings.

“The AMG Media Network, after the recent open offer, is now the single largest shareholder in NDTV. Consequently, with mutual agreement we have decided to divest most of our shares in NDTV to the AMG Media Network,” the Roys said in a statement. “Since the open offer was launched, our discussions with Gautam Adani have been constructive; all the suggestions we made were accepted by him positively and with openness.”

The Roys resigned from NDTV in November and the outlet’s star journalist Ravish Kumar, the subject of Vinay Shukla’s Toronto and Busan-winning documentary “While We Watched,” resigned earlier this month.

NDTV was founded in 1984 by the Roys. It currently operates two news channels and is known for being a watchdog of democracy by fearlessly questioning those in power, irrespective of which political party they belong to. As such, it has the reputation of being one of the few remaining independent – and therefore credible – news outlets in India.

With a market capitalization of $310 million, NDTV reported 2021 revenues of $45 million.

Adani, with a net worth of $120 billion, according to the latest Bloomberg Billionaires Index, is close to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Adani group has interests in the port management, electric power generation and transmission, renewable energy, mining, airport operations, natural gas, food processing and infrastructure sectors.

Unlike the other major billionaire-led group in India, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, which has significant media holdings, including digital rights ownership of the lucrative Indian Premier League cricket tournament, Adani’s media holdings are modest. AMNL was set up in April this year to be in “the business of publishing, broadcasting, distributing and advertising,” per a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. The first step in building the Adani media empire was the May acquisition of a 49% stake in Quintillion Business Media, a digital business news platform.

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Study: 90 percent of consumers are “curious” about the metaverse

One innovation that brands, retailers and consumers can hardly ignore is the metaverse, a virtual reality space where users can interact with a computer-generated environment and each other. More and more brands and retailers have discovered the metaverse for themselves and are trying to attract their customers not only offline and online, but also in the virtual space. But how exactly do they benefit from it and how is the metaverse received and perceived? Two new studies are dedicated to this topic.

Pritish Bagdi

The study “Total Immersion: How immersive experiences and the metaverse benefit customer experience and operations” by the Capgemini Research Institute examined the extent to which immersive experiences and the metaverse improve the customer experience and operations. It surveyed 8,000 consumers 18 years or older in twelve countries in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific in July and August 2022 about their AR/VR and other mobile/web-based immersive applications, including the metaverse.

The Institute also surveyed 1,000 companies from the consumer goods, retail, discrete manufacturing, life sciences, media, telecommunications, banking and insurance sectors to find out how companies are using these immersive technologies for their internal operations. This was supplemented by in-depth interviews with executives and technology partners in the field, as well as a social listening study that used Google search analysis, social media analysis, sentiment analysis and emotion.

“The findings suggest that the much-touted immersive technologies have great potential that businesses can harness,” sums up the study.

This was also the conclusion of a joint metaverse survey by market research institute Sinus and KPMG among more than 2,000 German citizens between the ages of 14 and 39. “For retailers and service providers of certain product groups and offers, the virtual world of the metaverse can represent a central sales market in which they can reach younger target groups,” they concluded.

Companies value immersive experiences

The Capgemini study found that companies expect immersive experiences to become important not only for interacting with customers, but also for improving the work experience of their employees. 70 percent believe that immersive experiences and the metaverse will be important applications to differentiate themselves in the marketplace, especially in terms of the customer journey.

Two-thirds of the companies surveyed (66 per cent) have already developed a roadmap for immersive experiences for the next one to two years. Fifteen percent plan to establish an initial presence in the metaverse within a year, and 45 percent believe it will be mainstream within three years. However, many companies are currently still taking a cautious approach.

“We are starting to see a more sophisticated approach from companies to designing immersive experiences and specifically the metaverse. The initial interest in the metaverse was driven by investment from the big tech players. This did not adequately address the real challenges of accessibility, security, interoperability and privacy, among others. Companies are now working hard on this,” commented Sargon Korkis, head of digital experience services at Capgemini Germany, in a statement.

Metaverse challenges for companies

In addition to external factors such as immature technology or a lack of connectivity infrastructure, there are also a number of internal challenges for companies to meet and expand consumer demand. “In particular, there is a lack of strategic planning: 40 percent of companies still see immersive experience initiatives as one-off projects, not as the first step in a series of continuous improvements. Nearly two-thirds (62 percent) of companies say there is no management commitment to immersive experiences, and more than half (56 percent) have no clear roadmap for adopting such technology," finds the Capgemini study.

The interviews conducted as part of the study revealed that companies have already successfully implemented various initiatives internally, using immersive experiences and the metaverse, such as digital prototyping in the automotive industry with VR design and construction testing, training medical professionals in surgery and planning retail spaces. In the latter case, the virtual viewing of a space allows the design team to plan a store without having to physically be on site.

Consumers are “fascinated” by the metaverse

More than three fourths (77 percent) of consumers surveyed by Capgemini expect immersive experiences to influence the way they interact with people, brands and services. At 4 percent, only a small group of them are already metaverse-literate - about 380 respondents in this study. However, three quarters of them said they currently used the metaverse and would continue to do so.

The study showed that consumers are generally “fascinated” by the possibilities of immersive experiences. They are most interested in using the metaverse as a place to interact with family and friends (43 percent) and colleagues (39 percent). The brands they would most like to interact with in the metaverse include retailers (78 percent) and consumer goods companies (77 percent). “This shows that consumers particularly want to improve their shopping experience for products with high experiential value, such as cars, furniture and household electronics,” states the study.

Metaverse shopping is “conceivable”

According to the KPMG study, about 50 percent of respondents are willing to buy physical products in the digital world: 61 percent could imagine buying clothes or shoes and 50 percent cosmetics, drugstore items or DIY supplies. 43 percent would be willing to buy groceries in the virtual world.

“The survey results show that both well-known and new brands have the chance to establish themselves in the metaverse. Well-known brands have the advantage of a leap of faith. According to data, two-thirds of the respondents pay particular attention to reputable offers in the metaverse. New brands, on the other hand, can specialise in digital and unique products. More than half of the respondents estimate that they can own very unusual products in the metaverse compared to in reality,” explains Stephan Fetsch, partner and head of retail at KPMG, in a statement.

However, there is a gap between actual consumer spending and interest in the metaverse: Nearly 80 percent of respondents spent money on online purchases last year, but less than half can currently imagine shopping in the metaverse. This holds great potential for retailers.

“Against the background of the increasing popularity of the metaverse, this difference of more than 30 percentage points holds enormous potential for retailers in goods and services in the metaverse - always provided that they reach the appropriate target groups. According to the hypothesis that every euro can only be spent once, the question arises here: will consumers leave it in the online world or in the metaverse in the future?", asks Colette Lala, sector manager retail at KPMG.

Challenges for consumers

As curious as consumers are about the metaverse, their enthusiasm may be dampened by concerns about the technology: they are especially concerned about harassment, personal safety and privacy. This was the finding of a Capgemini social media analysis of more than 180,000 online conversations.

“For the metaverse, as a network of virtual worlds, security and ethical issues are important in creating a sense of community, which is critical for widespread adoption. Whether the applications are for customers or employees, companies need to address these concerns before creating their virtual spaces. They should also find a way to moderate these spaces while balancing privacy and security concerns. Therefore, they need to understand the metaverse today to avoid being left behind later,” concludes Korkis.

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New report suggests metaverse could be five trillion dollar sector by 2030

Mumbai (India), July 05: A new report by McKinsey & Company has suggested that the metaverse’s potential economic value could see it generate up to five trillion dollars in impact by 2030.

Swati Bhat

According to the management consulting firm, digital worlds are quickly becoming the biggest new growth opportunity for a number of industries over the next decade, including e-commerce, which it estimated could have a market impact of up to 2.6 trillion dollars by 2030.

The report said the virtual goods economy, for example, was estimated to contribute nearly 75 percent towards global gaming revenues, with about 79 percent of consumers active in the metaverse to have made a purchase, mostly to enhance their online experience.

Out of products bought, 47 percent of consumers had made in-game purchases, 37 percent bought virtual cosmetic items and 33 percent purchased real-world items.

“Consumer behavior has largely shifted toward adopting digital personas, yet many brands have yet to provide a solution,” noted AnamXR co-founder and CEO, Irene-Marie Seelig, in a statement for the report. “This opens up a whole new revenue model for brands who can supply digital assets like clothing, for example.”

McKinsey said that businesses already leveraging the metaverse “may build lasting competitive advantages”, noting that leaders should be developing a strategic stance by establishing metaverse goals and the role they want to play in it.

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