Amazon Pulled the Plug on Cricket, Still Believes in India
- Ex-Unilever exec Tiwary is seeking 100 million new shoppers
- Amazon has invested more than $6.5 billion in the country
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Manish Tiwary had only been in his new job as head of Amazon.com Inc.’s India business a couple of months when he and his colleagues faced a weighty decision: How aggressively should the US e-commerce giant bid for media rights to the Indian Premier League?
Securing digital streaming rights to the cricket tournament would be a huge coup, potentially luring hundreds of millions of viewers to Amazon. But the US company would have to bid against deep-pocketed giants like Reliance Industries Ltd. In a stunning move, Amazon pulled the plug before the auction started. Tiwary and senior management in Seattle decided those billions would be better spent on Amazon’s e-commerce business.