Bharti Enterprises has inked an agreement to sell majority stake in Beetel Teletech Limited to a subsidiary of the US-based Brightstar Corp for an undisclosed amount. Brightstar mentions that this acquisition will enable to distribute mobile devices and accessories from popular manufacturers through Beetel's distribution channels in the country. Beetel claims to currently have a B2B distribution reach of 500 distributors and partners, 10,000 retailers and 28 warehouses across India. Beetel will also retain its name and all the existing employees will continue operating from its headquarters in Gurgaon, India. The terms of the deal were however not disclosed. The Softbank connection It's worth noting that Softbank is the largest shareholder in Brightstar, having acquired 57% stake in the company's US subsidiary for $1.26 billion in January this year. Following this, Softbank had also sold its Commerce and Service division to Brightstar. This division was the distributor of information and communications technology (ICT) hardware & software products and mobile accessories in Japan. Post acquisition, Brightstar also became the primary global distributor for SoftBank's "SELECTION" brand of mobile products which apparently features more than 765 mobile accessories like devices cases and chargers. On the other hand, Softbank has a 50:50 mobile Internet joint venture with Bharti Enterprises called Bharti Softbank which operates ventures like Hike (mobile messaging), Hoppr (location-based deals service) and Tiny Mogul Games (mobile gaming). * Founded in 1985, Beetel manufactures fixed line telephones for MTNL, BSNL and Airtel as well as sells landline phones for regular consumers and apparently exports them to more than 30 countries across five continents. This includes basic landline phones, caller ID phones…
