Amazon India set to buy MX Player in a distress sale

Amazon appears to be very close to acquiring Times Internet-owned MX Player, according to three sources aware of the discussions. This is Amazon’s second attempt at snagging the video streaming platform and this time it looks like the deal is almost finalized.

“Amazon India has been in late-stage talks to acquire MX Player in a distress sale,” said one of the sources requesting anonymity as talks are yet to be public. “The contours of the deal have been chalked out and Amazon has offered a term sheet to MX Player.”

Amazon India had also held discussions with the Times Internet-owned firm in March last year but the talks fell through by July 2023.  Times Internet had acquired MX Player in a $140 million deal in January 2018.

According to sources, the two companies began fresh discussions in February this year. “MX Player team will join Mini TV and its chief executive officer Karan Bedi is likely to join as director,” said another source who wished not to be named.

The acquisition will strengthen Amazon’s Mini TV operation in India, said sources. “The size of the deal is around $50 million,” added the person quoted in the beginning of the story.

MX Player is owned by MX Media which also used to own short video entertainment app MX TakaTak. MX TakaTak merged with Google-backed ShareChat in February 2022. Later, ShareChat shut down MX TakaTak after transitioning the users into Moj.  The Ankush Sachdeva-led firm also wrote off its investment in MX TakaTak.

Queries sent to Amazon and MX Player did not elicit an immediate response.

If the deal goes through, MX Player will be the sixth subsidiary from which Times Internet would have taken an exit in the past three years. The Gurugram-based company sold MX Takatak in February 2022 while DineOut was acquired by Swiggy in May 2022. E-commerce roll-up unicorn Mensa acquired MensXP, iDiva, and Hypp from Times Internet in December 2022. Times Internet has also been looking to sell its music streaming platform Gaana and held talks with Airtel Wynk but the discussion didn’t go through.