Zee-Sony Merger: The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Tuesday approved the petition of Zee Entertainment. According to PTI report, shareholders of Zee Entertainment had filed a petition regarding merger with Sony. Last week, despite all the regulatory approvals, the merger (Zee Sony Merger) was canceled.
Notice issued on Mad Men Film Ventures’ petition
Mumbai Bench of NCLT has issued notice on the petition of Mad Men Film Ventures. Made Men Film Ventures is a shareholder of Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL). NCLT has issued a notice to Sony and asked it to reply within three weeks.
Mad Men Film Ventures had filed a petition on Tuesday requesting both ZEEL and Sony to implement the merger. NCLT had approved the merger in August 2023. The tribunal did not agree to the arguments given by the lawyer. He said that the approval given by NCLT was conditional and depended on individual circumstances. NCLT has fixed March 12 as the next date of hearing in this case.
Sony had broken the deal
Earlier on January 22, 2024, Sony Pictures Networks India Pvt., now known as Culver Max Entertainment Limited, had sent a notice to Zee Entertainment to break the deal, in which the deal was to be completed within the stipulated time frame. Due to not being there, he was informed to withdraw his hand.
According to a statement issued by Sony Pictures Entertainment, ‘Culver Max Entertainment (CME) has issued a notice to Zee Entertainment to terminate the agreement dated December 22, 2021 for the merger of ZEEL and CME. According to a statement issued by Sony, ‘Although we were discussing extending the last date under the merger cooperation agreement, we could not agree on an extension to the January 21 deadline. After more than two years of negotiations, we are extremely disappointed that all the merger conditions were not met by the deadline.
