Zee to takeover Amar Ujala

Reports coming in from different sources say that Zee group is all set to take over India leading Hindi daily Amar Ujala. The deal size is said to be worth 1100 crore rupees. Zee is expected to inform BSE about the deal on Wenesday. Rajul Maheshwari will remain director till December 31 and Sunil Mutreja will act as CEO of Amar Ujala after take over by Zee.

Amar Ujala is 4th largest Hindi daily in India as per Indian Readership Survey (IRS) behind Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhaskar and Hindustan and ahead of Rajasthan Patrika. It is assumed that if the take over takes place  war between leading regional players in Hindi belt will resume.

In India's most populous state Uttar Pradesh Amar Ujala is in direct competition with the market leader and world's largest read daily Dainik Jagran. In western UP there is close fight between the two while Jagran has a clear edge in eastern and central UP.

In Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir Amar Ujala is the market leader. Dainik Jagran in spite of consistent efforts has failed to break its hold over the readers in hilly terrain. India's number two Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar also trails behind Amar Ujala in Himachal Pradesh.

The deal if materializes will give Zee ample space to grow its print media business as well as strengthen regional news channel Zee Uttar Pradesh & Uttarakhand. The company already owns an English daily DNA which was started in partnership with Dainik Bhaskar. Later on Zee took over it completely.

DNA shook the hegemony of Times of India in Mumbai when launched however failed to beat the Old Lady of Bouribunder's hold in terms of circulation and readership. However DNA has been successful in creating a new audience and along with Hindustan Times has carved a space of its own.

It is also pertinent to note that Zee group on an earlier ocassion has also shown interest to purchase stake in Amar Ujala when the war between stake holders of the company was at its peak. However the deal fell through after decision of the Company Law Board.

While Amar Ujala's competitior Dainik Jagran has been on an acquisition spree buying Mid Day and Nai Dunia it has stayed within its confines leave alone the effort it made to acquire Prabhat Khabar Jharkhand's leading Hindi daily years ago.

During recession Amar Ujala pulled back from Punjab while its competitors Dainik Jagran and Dainik Bhaskar engaged in fierce battle to capture the market. Jagran more than a year ago also launched a Punjabi daily from the state.

Amar Ujala which launched Compact a tabloid size newspaper to take on inext a bilingual compact size daily from Jagran group has closed its Dehradun and Meerut editions in the recent past. The reason behind it was said to be focus on editions like Varanasi, Kanpur, Allahabad and Gorakhpur and expand it into smaller cities of Uttar Pradesh.

Hindi newspaper space in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand is now a days abuzz with rumors of Navbharat TImes Hindi daily from Times group launching editions from Lucknow and Dehradun and Ananad Bazaar Patrika from Lucknow. 

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