Ratan Tata vs China: How one deal could have helped Tata Group become big player in…

Chinese mobile company Vivo is one of the major smartphone sellers in India. The Chinese company keeps on launching new phones in India at regular interval. It is to be noted that Vivo is among the top 5 mobile companies in India. According to reports, Ratan Tata’s Tata Group was interested in acquiring a large part of Vivo’s business in India According to a report published in ToI, Vivo, which clocked Rs 30,000 crore revenue in FY23, was in talks to sell 51 per cent stake of its India operations to Tata group. The report added that Vivo was hoping that the deal would help the company ‘Indianise’ its operations due to rising pressure from the Indian government.

But Tim Cook-led electronics giant Apple objected to the deal and this is the reason why Tata Group failed to seal the deal. It is learnt that Apple was against Tata Group’s plan to ink the deal because Tata Group is currently manufacturing the devices manufactured by Apple at its plant in Bangalore.

“This has been one of the key reasons that scuttled the plan. For Apple, any deal of the Tata group, its key manufacturing ally, with Vivo would have meant a partnership with a competitor. This perhaps led to the talks breaking down between Tatas and Vivo,” ToI quoted a source as saying. “We are denying this development,” a spokesperson of the Tata Group said, as quoted by the report.

It is to be noted that Tata Group entered electronics manufacturing space in India through Tata Electronics in November 2023 when the company acquired Taiwanese Wistron's local operations for Rs 1000 crore. Tata is the first Indian company to manufacture Apple iPhones. There is no denying the fact that Tata Group would have become an important player in India’s smartphone sector by acquiring majority stake in Vivo.