Reliance likely to buy stake in mobile content provider Glance InMobi

After a series of acquisitions in the past few months, Reliance Industries Ltd is now in talks with Glance InMobi Pte for buying a stake in the mobile content provider. Glance InMobi is backed by Alphabet Inc subsidiary Google Inc. Reliance may pump in around $300 million in the Indian unicorn.

The transaction is expected to be closed in the next few weeks. The deal could involve strategic cooperation and financial elements. Glance InMobi shows curated content, including news and entertainment, on phone lock screens. It also runs a short-video mobile application called Roposo.

Analysts are seeing the current deal in the background of Reliance and Google co-developing an affordable phone, which could hit the market around Diwali. Besides, Reliance will gain a major foothold in the short-video format platform, a category that's throwing in India.

Google and Reliance Jio in July 2020 had announced a partnership to build a new Android-based operating system for an entry-level smartphone for the Indian market.

The smartphone was slated to be released in September but the launch got delayed due to semiconductor shortage across the world. Founded in 2019, Glance InMobi claims to have 130 million daily active users. It also runs a short-video format app, Roposo, in different Indian languages.