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No big deal

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Business Standard New Delhi
Marathi newspapers treated the Jet-Sahara deal as a non-event and gave it a miss. The controversy surrounding the deal and its calling off didn't figure in any of the prominent Marathi newspapers, including Sakal, Loksatta and Maharashtra Times.
 
While Loksatta completely ignored the issue and did not carry a single report on the subject, Maharashtra Times and Sakal featured the development on their business pages. However, they were all routine translations of agency reports.
 
The Telugu print media, however, gave prominent display to the deal on their business pages. On Wednesday, Eenadu published an analytical article on its business page, discussing the intensifying uncertainty over the Rs 2,300-crore deal. It also carried an item on former civil aviation minister Sharad Yadav's letter to the Prime Minister asking him to stall the security clearance to Jet chief Naresh Goyal.
 
On Thursday, Eenadu splashed a headline on its business page that read "Jet-Sahara deal vanishes into thin air", while Andhra Jyothi, on its business page, described the entire saga as a "Bad bargain between the two airlines". Vaartha, besides carrying the news article, published Vijay Mallya's statement that he was not interested in buying Air Sahara.
 
However, Andhra Jyothi speculated that Mallya was still in the race to acquire Air Sahara. "Acquisition of Air Sahara will help Kingfisher start its international services. The company's senior executives have already started negotiations with Sahara chief Subroto Roy in this regard," the newspaper said, adding that Jet and Sahara executives had declined to comment on this issue.
 
Leading Tamil daily Dinamalar didn't carry the news on the Jet-Sahara deal. While the daily carried reports on latest developments such as Nokia locating its network centres in Chennai, India and China signing the Nathu La trade pact and the finance minister's remarks on the new income-tax form (Form 2F), the daily didn't carry any report on the Jet-Sahara deal in the last couple of days.
 
In the Kannada press too the Jet-Sahara deal did not grab much attention. It received routine coverage in the business section of leading Kannada dailies Vijaya Karnataka, Praja Vani and Kannada Prabha. Only Vijaya Karnataka covered the news on consecutive days. However, none of the newspapers had any special report analysing the deal.

 
 

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First Published: Jun 23 2006 | 12:00 AM IST

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