After NDTV, Adani acquires 50.5% stake in news agency IANS

Adani group-owned AMG Media Networks Ltd has acquired a 50.5 percent stake in Delhi-headquartered news agency Indo-Asian News Service or IANS, said the company. 

IANS, which is known for its Hindi and English news wire services, will now operate as a subsidiary of AMNL, similar to NDTV. 

AMNL has signed a shareholders’ agreement with IANS, and has also acquired voting rights in the company. The company said the acquisition was “strategic in nature”. 

As reported by PTI, a regulatory filing by Adani Enterprises said: “AMNL has also signed a shareholders’ agreement with IANS and Sandeep Bamzai, a shareholder of IANS, to record their inter-se rights with respect to IANS...All operational and management control of IANS will be with AMNL and AMNL will have the right to appoint all directors of IANS...Pursuant to the acquisition as set out above, IANS is now a subsidiary of AMNL.”

This comes nearly a year after the Gautam Adani group’s hostile takeover of NDTV. Over the past year, however, the news network’s digital viewership has continued to dwindle amid management rejig, new anchors, and some ostensible tweaks in content strategy.

Newslaundry reported that views at NDTV India decreased to 45 million in December, after the takeover, against 98 million a month before – a sharp slide of over 54 percent. Similar trend was seen at the network’s English offering NDTV 24x7. This decline coincided with the signs of an imminent newsroom exodus at the network, beginning with the exit of the Roys and senior journalist Ravish Kumar. Read all about it here.

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