Mumbai, November 28: According to reports, industrialist Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani is in talks with India's Times Group to sell his news media assets, as the Reliance Industries Chairman plans to move out of the business that has been losing money, BloomberQuint reported. However, replying to developments, Reliance Industries said that "the story is baseless and false." Reliance Industries Hits Rs 10 Lakh Crore Market Cap, Becomes First Indian Company to Touch Milestone.

The report had quoted that the Bennett Coleman & Co Ltd, the publisher of the Economic Times and Times of India, is considering to get advisors for "due diligence on the news properties" of Network18 Media and Investments Ltd. Reliance Industries Acquires British Toy Maker Hamleys.

Reliance had brought Network18 in 2014, which operated 56 channels spanning from news to entertainment for Rs 4,000 crore. Network18 group owns TV channels (including CNN-News18, CNBC-TV18, CNBC-Awaaz), websites (moneycontrol.com, firstpost.com), entertainment channel (MTV and Colors), among other businesses.

After the reports, the shares of Network18 hopped as much as 10 per cent on Thursday and headed for their highest level in six months. The shares of Reliance Industries also reached a record high giving the company a market value of about $140 billion.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 28, 2019 11:42 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).