CCI Approves Google LLC's Stake Purchase In Jio Platforms

In a statement on Thursday, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs said that the Competition Commission of India (CCI) approves acquisition of 7.73 percent equity share capital of Jio Platforms Limited (JPL) by Google International LLC (GIL) under Section 31(1) of the Competition Act, 2002.

GIL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Google LLC (collectively with all Google LLC subsidiaries, Google). Google LLC is a Delaware limited liability company and wholly-owned subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.

"GIL is a holding company and does not own/operate any of Google's products/services," the statement added.

As per the combined notice filed with the regulator, the proposed transaction enables Google and JPL to develop and launch a new smartphone in India.

"The parties, thus, consider that the only relevant market for assessing the horizontal competitive effects of the transaction is the market for the supply of mobile phones in India. Outside this transaction, Google and JPL will continue to conduct their business activities independently," as per the notice.

Reliance Industries Limited, the parent company of Jio Platforms, had announced in July that Google has agreed to invest in JPL and to cooperate on technology initiatives, including the development of affordable smartphones.

JPL's business currently includes digital products/services, including wireless, home broadband and enterprise broadband services, telecommunication services, mobile applications, various digital platforms, back-end technology services for e-commerce entities and other miscellaneous software and technology-related services.