AIRTEL’S ACQUISITION OF TIKONA UNDER LEGAL CHALLENGE
Bharti Airtel has acquired Tikona Digital’s 4G airwaves for Rs. 1600 Crore. This move will result in further competition in a market which is already seeing fierce battle, resulting in quite a few consolidations. The takeover will enable Bharti Airtel to compete with Reliance Jio Infocom and Idea-Vodafone cellular combine.
Rajesh Tiwari, one of the Co-Founders of Tikona, who owns a direct 1% stake in the Company, served a legal notice on both companies demanding the details as to how the profits will be shared between shareholders.
Airtel has already acquired 4 out of thee 22 circles in the 4G spectrum. Tikona acquisition would make the total count, 5. The combined spectrum holding of Airtel in these five circles won’t breach any spectrum holding limits and the company won’t have to pay any additional market price to the government for the spectrum as it was bought by Tikona in the 2010 auctions for Rs 1,058 crore.
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