MUMBAI: Why did the deal between Zee and Sony Pictures fall through? 

Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman & CEO CEO Tony Vinciquerra gave some insights on 30 May at a business segment call with investment analysts. 

Said he: “The Zee situation (the merger deal) would have been very great. It took a very long time to get regulatory approval and in that time, unfortunately, the Zee business deteriorated substantially.”

Vinciquerra, explained that Sony Pictures has several conversations going on in India  that “could, might, possibly” end up in something that would help  the company in the market place. 

He added: “But we are not concerned about our survival there. We have a very good busines there. We will survive. We will do well. We have a very large competitor there who is merging with another of our very large competitors. We are not sure how the regulatory process will go over there, but it will probably take some time. Which would give us some time to re-establish and re-energise our business to compete very strongly. But we are looking some other options which may or may not come to fore.”

Vinciquerra also put paid to reports that the company had settled upon Disney Star's Gaurav Banerjee to replace India CEO NP Singh who had announced he was retiring. 

“We are aggressively looking…we have a long list of very good candidates we can choose from,” he elaborated.