RCom's decline and fall: How debt, bad decisions, Jio brought down company

Analysts say RCom had many assets but it did not time the sale right

In June 2005, Anil Ambani’s estranged brother Mukesh agreed to hand him the telecom business as part of a family settlement. Observers said Anil got a lemon while the cash cow of the group (oil and gas) was kept by his brother.  

The wireless telecom Anil got had an over 20 per cent (December 2006) market share. But bulk of users were on CDMA, a tech losing out to GSM (it had only a 3 per cent of that market). And data, which was the cornerstone of that tech, had still not become hot. Also, his brother Mukesh’s ‘Monsoon Hungama’