Raghav Bahl quits as managing director of Quint Digital Media

Media veteran Raghav Bahl has resigned as managing director of Quint Digital Media Ltd, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange on Wednesday. Bahl will continue to act as non-executive promoter director on the Board of the company.

“In terms of the Regulation 30 of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, (the “LODR Regulations”), we would like to inform you that Mr. Raghav Bahl has resigned as the Managing Director of the Company w.e.f. closure of business hours of December 29, 2020. Further Mr. Raghav Bahl will continue to act as Non-Executive Promoter Director on the Board of the Company,” the statement said.

Quint Digital Media got listed on the BSE after Bahl acquired a controlling stake in a company called Gaurav Mercantiles and Quintillion Media’s digital news business was transferred to this company. The name of the company was changed to Quint Digital Media. The company runs and operates three digital platforms, namely thequint.com. hindi.thequint.com, and fit.thequint.com.

Serial entrepreneur Bahl is best known for founding the Network18 group in the early 1990s and expanding it into a media conglomerate with TV channels, digital properties and a magazine. Under Bahl’s leadership, the company had formed successful joint ventures with CNBC, Forbes, A&E Networks, Viacom, and Time Warner, with whom it runs English news channel, CNN-News18. It also operates the Hindi news channel, News18 India, and is growing in regional markets as well.

However, by late 2011, the company had accumulated a large debt and it sought capital from Reliance Industries Ltd, which eventually acquired Network18 in 2014.

Later, Bahl founded Quintillion Media with his wife Ritu Kapur and entered into a joint venture agreement with Bloomberg LP, the US financial, software, data and media company.

Bahl had planned to start a business news channel with Bloomberg under Quintillion Business Media. However, he was unable to procure a broadcast licence from the government for his TV channel for three years. Eventually, he shut down the TV division this April, leading to 100 people losing their jobs. He said he would focus on digital operations.

To be sure, in September 2019, the government put a 26% cap on foreign direct investment in digital news platforms under the government approval route. Last month, through a gazette notification, digital news platforms were put under the ministry of information & broadcasting.