How Ambani Outfoxed Amazon in a $3.4 Billion Deal Dispute
- Amazon, Future and Reliance mulling an out-of-court settlement
- Reliance jolted Amazon by taking over Future’s stores, staff
Mukesh Ambani
Photographer: NurPhoto/Getty Images
Add Amazon.com Inc. to the list of companies that have been outmaneuvered by Mukesh Ambani’s juggernaut. Not only has he jolted the U.S. giant in the fight to dominate India’s retail sector, he now holds all the cards in a $3.4 billion dogfight to buy a local cash-strapped retailer.
Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd. in late-February quietly began poaching employees and taking over rental leases of hundreds of stores once run by Future Retail Ltd. and Future Lifestyle Fashions Ltd., even as Amazon furiously tried to block formal acquisitions through lawsuits and arbitration across India and Singapore. Ambani’s bloodless coup forced Amazon to seek settlement on the bitter dispute and alarmed Future’s investors and lenders wary of asset-stripping.