New Delhi: Discovery Communications has called off the acquisition of Chef Sanjeev Kapoor-owned food specialty network FoodFood seven months after entering into the agreement. The change of plan comes after the change in leadership of Discovery in the recent past.
Discovery, world’s largest media company for factual entertainment, has decided to acquire a controlling stake in Kapoor’s Turmeric Vision — a joint venture between him, Malaysia-based Astro and ad man Sandeep Goyal’s Mogae Consultants. Both Astro and Goyal have exited the venture since then.
“At this time, we can confirm that we are not entering into the partnership with FoodFood as announced earlier this year,” a Discovery spokesperson said in an email.
“India remains a global priority market for Discovery and we will continue to explore opportunities as we expand our business and accelerate our strategic growth investments here.”
The deal cancellation scenario was similar to the deal that was cancelled between Star India and Balaji Telefilms for venturing in to South Regional Market, wherein Balaji Telefilms was supposed to be in place of Asianet, which was cancelled after the exit of Sameer Nair and Peter Mukherjee from the leadership of Star India. Similarly, source from Discovery reveals that the two companies had signed the agreement in the first quarter, but later, with the new leadership in India, things have changed.
“The vision of Discovery is not in sync with what Kapoor has. So, it was decided that we call off the deal. It will be formalized in the next couple of weeks,” this person said, requesting anonymity. FoodFood was launched in January 2011 and it has seen an investment of over $30 million.
