Now, Raghav Bahl quits Network18

The controlling shareholder and managing director of Network18 Group has quit the company.

The exodus at Network18 has just gone deeper. Highly placed sources in the industry tell afaqs! that Raghav Bahl, controlling shareholder and managing director of Network18 Group has quit the company. This comes close to the group losing its CEO, COO and CFO in the last couple of days.

Industry watchers believe that the recent exodus is a result of Reliance Industries acquiring controlling stake in Network18. The board of Reliance Industries (RIL) announced yesterday that it has approved a funding of up to Rs 4,000 crore to Independent Media Trust (IMT), of which RIL is the sole beneficiary, for acquisition of control in Network18 Media & Investments Limited including its subsidiary TV18 Broadcast.

Bahl has also been instrumental in crafting successful joint ventures with media giants like CNBC, NBC Universal, Viacom, Time Warner, Forbes, A&E Networks and GS Homeshopping (Korea).

On May 28, B Sai Kumar, group CEO of Network18, had resigned, followed by Ajay Chacko, COO, Network18 and president, A+E Networks | TV18, who also decided to move on from the company. Within a day of resignations of both the CEO and COO of the Network18 Group, the company's chief financial officer RDS Bawa had also decided to quit the media conglomerate.

Raghav Bahl began his career as a management consultant with A F Ferguson & Co. followed by a stint with American Express Bank before he launched TV18, his production house. Winner of the Sanskriti Award for Journalism in 1994, he has over 24 years of experience in television and journalism. He founded TV18 (now Network18 Group) in the year 1993.

Bahl was also selected by Ernst & Young as 'Entrepreneur of The Year (2007) for Business Transformation'. He has also been awarded the AIMA award for the Media Person of the Year in 2011 and BMA recognised him as 'Entrepreneur of The Year (2011)'. He has been conferred with the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil), Honoris Causa by Amity University, Uttar Pradesh (2011).

An Economics graduate from St. Stephens College, he has done MBA from the University of Delhi. He has also authored the book 'S U P E R P O W E R? The Amazing Race Between China's Hare and India's Tortoise'.