Zee Entertainment on Tuesday clarified the firm was not involved in any negotiations with relation to the scrapped Sony deal.
Reports claimed Zee had engaged with Sony Pictures Networks India in a last-ditch attempt to revive their $10-billion merger that was called off on January 22.
Representatives from both sides, the reports claimed, held meetings in Mumbai over the last fortnight to salvage the deal and that parties were in discussions to thrash out an out of court settlement to their ongoing dispute.
Zee had filed a petition before the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), seeking a direction to Sony to implement the merger scheme.
SIAC also denied Sony Group’s plea seeking interim relief against ZEEL to restrain it from moving NCLT to enforce the failed merger of its subsidiary Culver Max with the Indian media house.
Representatives from both parties have been working to salvage the deal, with efforts to revive the merger gaining momentum over the past two weeks.
However, there is a chance that the discussions might fail as significant differences remain unresolved and both sides are standing firm on their positions, the report added.
Sony terminated the merger with Zee due to certain unresolved “closing conditions” and leadership disputes, including disagreements over CEO Punit Goenka’s involvement in regulatory issues.
The Zee-Sony merger, in the works for two years, would have created an Indian television juggernaut with more than 90 channels across sports.
Sony Group Corporation (SGC) had said ZEEL did not satisfy the merger conditions and initiated arbitration proceedings before Singapore International Arbitration Center (SIAC) claiming $90 million (around Rs 748.5 crore) as a termination fee.