Aircel founder Chinnakannan Sivasankaran said that today’s India is very different from a decade back as at that time businesses faced significant pressures. Success was a problem at that time, he said in a podcast, adding, “Politicians intervened and I lost my company.”
He said, “I just made a paltry sum of ₹3,400 crore from the deal, if I would have sold it to AT&T I would have got 8 billion (sic).”
India today wasn’t like the India then, he said, adding, “Today no one can pressurise you. Back then the entrepreneur had to face pressure to sell the company to a particular person”.
Aircel exited the market in February 2018 due to financial problems. In 2006, Maxis Berhad took over Aircel by acquiring a 74% stake. The Aircel-Maxis deal came under the scanner in 2011 when Chinnakannan Sivasankaran alleged that he was pressured to sell his stake to Maxis Berhad.
Chinnakannan Sivasankaran said, “Now you build a business no one can pressure you. Now it is a liberalised India. My complaint is not that that they forced me to sell, my complaint is they should have allowed me to sell to who offered me 8 billion.”
