MUMBAI: After Reliance Industries acquired Network18, a slew of resignations followed. And amongst those was also the network’s founder and promoter Raghav Bahl. While there were questions on what was next, the much awaited announcement is finally out. Though Bahl ends his term as promoter from today, 7 July, he will continue to be the non executive director on TV18’s board.  He has also resigned as managing director of Network18, though he will continue as its non-executive director.

This apart, the old promoters including Bahl, Ritu Kapur, Vandana Malik and Subhash Bahl, along with their affiliates have been replaced by Independent Media Trust (IMT), Network18 Media and Investments, Reliance Industries, RB Mediasoft, RB Media Holdings, RRB Mediasoft, Colorful Media, Adventure Marketing, Watermark Infratech and RB Holdings. The company announced this after a board meeting held this morning. And all of them have resigned from the board as well, along with the  co-founder and executive director of TV 18 Sanjay Ray Chaudhuri.

In another announcement that followed, Reliance Industries revealed that Independent Media Trust (IMT) of which RIL is the sole beneficiary, has completed the acquisition of Network18 Media and Investments (NW18) including its subsidiary TV18 Broadcast (TV18).  With the completion of this transaction, IMT and RIL have become promoters of NW18 and TV18. The open offers to the public shareholders for acquisition of equity shares of NW18, TV18 and Infomedia Press as announced on 29 May by JMT are in process and the draft letter of offer has been filed with SEBI for its comments.

The company also stated in a notice to the Bombay stock exchange that the Network18 board has been reconsituted with the appointment of veteran journalist  Rohit Bansal and founder and group chairman of Webduniya Vinay Chhajlani as non-executive directors, and  HDFC chairman  Deepak S Parekh and Adil Zainulbhai as independent directors, following the resignation of the promoter directors.