Friday, December 21, 2012

Will Mukesh Have the Last laugh in 2010?

It’s slated to be the largest non-pharma deal this year (till date), if successful. But the Bharti-MTN deal is much more than that, for it can potentially be a major game changer in corporate India’s most high profile sibling rivalry – that of the Ambani brothers

We still remember the blistering summer of mid-June, 2005 in Mumbai, when this magazine was launched in a glittering function at the Taj. Virtually all the guests were gracious enough to have a few words of praise for Business & Economy. But once the polite conversation got over with, it was back to the BIGGEST story of those days-the public spat and the looming split between Mukesh and Anil Ambani. There were whispers about how a battle over family crown jewels between the two had been transformed into a deeply bitter and rancorous personal feud that had ostensibly dragged even close lieutenants and spouses into the quagmire. Mumbai denizens were wondering which brother had better access to the corridors of power in Delhi. There were apocryphal tales about how the head honcho of ICICI Bank K. V. Kamath was desperately working out a deal whereby at least a public façade of an amicable split would be maintained. South Mumbai residents talked in awe of how the matriarch Kokilaben was holding all night counselling sessions at Sea Wind, the multi-storied Ambani residence in Colaba. Even as we talked a little and gossiped a lot more, mobile phones started twittering with calls and text messages announcing a final and formal split between the two. We knew what the cover feature of the second issue of Business & Economy would be.

Beyond the headlines, the real story was the gut wrenching emotions and angst that haunted Mukesh Ambani when he had to part with his brainchild, his passion and his personal tribute to his father – the late Dhirubhai Ambani. That was Reliance Infocom. Though these things can never be accurately verified, people close to the split swear that Mukesh swore that he will reclaim his dream and passion sometime in the future. Meanwhile, within weeks of the split, every company and employee of the companies that came under the control of Mukesh abandoned their Reliance phone handsets and connections.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPMMalay Chaudhuri
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