Bharti eyes Big Apple as starter for retail feast

Bharti Enterprises, slated to start its retail business in the first quarter next year, may acquire Big Apple — the Delhi-based supermarket chain with 65 stores. Bharti’s acquisition blueprint in the retail sector may be a replay of its telecom business, where the group built up a pan-India mobile presence by acquiring telcos such as JT Mobile in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, Skycell in Chennai and Hexacom in Rajasthan.

A senior source said the Bharti Group and Big Apple are at fairly advanced stages of negotiations and if price expectations match, the deal could be sealed as early as next month. He also said Big Apple has quoted its price and Bharti has given a revised offer.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

Bharti arm to buy Jataayu for $20 mn

Bharti Telesoft is close to acquiring the Bangalore headquartered Jataayu Software, a provider of technology solutions for the mobile handset and value added services (VAS,), for an estimated $20 million.

Sources said Bharti Telesoft, the VAS arm of mobile telecom player Bharti Enterprises, has already entered into an initial agreement with Jataayu and an announcement is likely to be made shortly.

It was widely reported that Jataayu was close to a sell-off. It is believed that Bharti Telesoft was in talks with Jataayu for several months and now has an agreement in place eventhough the latter received proposals from others including overseas suitors.

Read more in The Economic Times article.