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Chinnakannan Sivasankaran
Indian-born businessman (born 1956) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Chinnakannan Sivasankaran (born 29 July 1956) is an Indian-born businessman and serial entrepreneur who is a citizen of Seychelles. He is the founder of Indian mobile network operator Aircel, Siva Computers, and Dishnet.[1][2][3]
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Career
Sivasankaran started his business career in 1985 when he purchased Sterling Computers from Robert Amritraj. At that time, PCs were priced at just Rs 33,000, whereas competitors' models might cost as very high. Through the venture, Sterling rose to become one of India's top three computer businesses.[4]
In 1992, Sivasankaran won a five-year contract from state-owned MTNL, which ran telecom services in Mumbai and Delhi. It took Siva little time to sense that the telecom sector would soon be thrown open to the private sector. The possibilities thrilled him. Siva shifted base from Chennai to New Delhi. In 2004, Siva managed to get cellular telephony licences for Delhi and three other telecom circles. Within no time, he sold these licences to his old acquaintance from Chennai, Shashi Ruia of Essar, for $105 million.[3][5]
In 2004, Chinnakannan Sivasankaran bought 65% stake in Barista under his company Fresh & Honest (A Sterling Group subsidiary). And his Sterling Group also bought out Tata Coffee's stake later.[6][7]
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Founding of Aircel
Chinnakannan Sivasankaran entered into telecom industry at a very early age. Chinnakannan Sivasankaran founded Aircel from Kovilur village, Cheyyar taluk, Tiruvannamalai district and started its operations in the Tamil Nadu in 1999.[3][8]
It had a significant presence in Odisha, Assam, and North-East telecom circles, and it was formerly the market leader in Tamil Nadu. Voice and other 2G and 3G services were shut off everywhere after merger negotiations with Reliance Communications failed.[9][10]
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Challenges and Legacy
Despite Aircel's success, the telecom industry is notorious for its challenges. In 2018, Aircel faced financial difficulties and eventually filed for bankruptcy, marking a challenging chapter in its history. However, Sivasankaran's legacy extends far beyond the company's economic struggles.[11][1]
Malaysian telecom company Maxis Communications bought a 74% stock in 2005. The remaining 26% stock is held by Sindya Securities and Investments promoted by Suneeta Reddy.[12][13]
In an interview with Podcaster Raj Shamani, Sivasankaran said he was forced to sell Aircel to one person. In exchange for the deal, he got ₹3,400 crore; if he had sold it to AT&T, he would have received $8 billion.[8][14][15]
In January 2018, Aircel shut down its operations in unprofitable circles including, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh (West).[16]
Dishnet
In 1998, Sivasankaran started DishnetDSL, the country's first DSL Internet Service Provider. In 2004 it was sold to VSNL which was acquired by TATA Group in 2008, and the assets are merged with TATA.[17][18]
References
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