Amazon, Verizon Look To Join Facebook, Google, Intel In Indian Telco Frenzy With $4B Investment: Report

Amazon.com, Inc AMZN and Verizon Communications Inc VZ are set to resume negotiations to pick up stake in India’s Vodafone Idea Ltd for more than $4 billion, local media reported Thursday.

What Happened: The talks came to a halt as a ruling was expected from the Indian Supreme Court on staggered payments due from the Indian telecom firm, which could have led to an existential crisis for the company, Mint reported. 

Vodafone Idea reportedly owes the Indian government $6.87 billion in license fee, spectrum charges, interest and penalties. The company has already paid $1.07 billion.

Why It Matters: The funding holds importance for the Indian mobile phone company to pay back the government but also to upgrade its network infrastructure, Mint noted.

The move comes as United States technology giants look to be a part of the action in the growing Indian telco industry. 

In April, Facebook Inc FB picked up a near 10% stake in Asia's richest person Mukesh Ambani's telecom company Jio Platforms for $5.7 billion. In July, Intel Corporation INTC invested $250 million in the Reliance Industries Ltd. subsidiary. Alphabet Inc.'s GOOGL GOOG followed with a $4.5 billion funding later that month.

Silver Lake, KKR & Co., QUALCOMM Inc. QCOM, L Catterton, TPG Telecom Ltd TSLX, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority are some of the other companies that rushed to invest in Jio this year.

Amazon was also earlier reported to be picking up a 9.9% stake in Jiomart -- Jio's joint e-commerce venture with Reliance Retail.

Price Action: Amazon shares closed nearly 0.9% higher at $3,531.45 on Wednesday. On the same day, Verizon shares closed almost 2.3% higher at $60.53.