Reliance Industries Ltd. [RIL] will acquire popular television news channels CNN-IBN, IBN7, CNBC-TV18 and Lokmat, and also the entire clutch of ETV channels for Rs. 4,000 crore. The announcement was confirmed by the Network 18 and Reliance Industries who have released a respective press statements.

Raghav Bahl, founder and Editor will end his association in July and Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor-in-Chief  is expected to resign in couple of days. The transaction will take place through Reliance's Independent Media Trust [IMT], would result in the trust having an ownership of 78 per cent in Network18 and nine per cent in TV18.

Reliance will also take charge of News websites such as firstpost.com and ibnlive.com and the Colors entertainment channel. Besides this, Reliance offers to public shareholders to acquire equity shares in Network18, TV18 and Infomedia Press Ltd. as per the guidelines of Securities and Exchange Board of India [SEBI].

(AW: Vamshi)