In 2012, the IPL side from Hyderabad, the Deccan Chargers was struck off the roster. Facing prolonged financial issues, the Deccan Chronicle backed side could not sustain themselves and was ultimately replaced by the Sunrisers Hyderabad. The majority owner of Sunrisers is Kalanithi Maran, at $15.9 million for a five-year deal, the Sunrisers have literally risen to become one of the better IPL sides. Kalanithi who? Let's find out.
Kalanithi Maran is a media baron and owner of the famous Sun Group from the South. Sun TV comes to mind doesn't it? Yes, the same Sun TV is owned by a man who was a student leader. You read it right, a student leader at the famous Loyola College in Chennai. His transformation from a student leader to a baron, although unsurprising, is worth a read.
Kalanithi was born into a political and influential family. The son of former Union Minister of Commerce Murasoli Maran, brother of former Textile Minister Dayanidhi Maran, and grand-nephew of former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Karunanidhi, Kalanithi was always going to have it easy; but laced with the difficulties faced when you belong to such a family.
An alma mater of the University of Scranton (Pennsylvania), from where he completed his MBA; Kalanithi didn't follow the family tradition to venture into politics. Instead, he turned to business and one must say it turned out to be a brilliant call.
Here is a brief as to how Kalanithi made it big:
Early steps
He began his journey as a circulation clerk in Sumangli Publications in Chennai, after which he worked for Kunukamam, a Tamil weekly in the 1980’s.
He soon started a monthly video news magazine named Poomalai which was circulated widely among Tamils worldwide. Unfortunately, he had to stop its publication due to piracy.
Sun Network
April 14, 1993, Kalanithi founded the Sun network, a media based company. Based in Chennai, it is a part of Kal Media Services under the Sun group.
In 1998, when India removed the restrictions upon the satellite broadcast industry, Kalanithi’s Sun network was among the first to procure such a license and in the process setting up benchmarks for others. What began with a bank loan of $86,000 and just a few hours of Tamil programs, has gradually expanded to 24hour TV channels in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Bengali languages.
Today Sun Network reaches across 95 million people in India and 27 countries abroad, including US, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa, and Australia and stands as Asia’s more profitable media company along with the largest TV network. Exactly 10 years and 10 days after the launch on April 24, 2006 --- the company was listed in the Bombay Stock Exchange upon raising US$ 133 million.
The good, the bad and the ugly
With a net worth of US$ 4 billion, Forbes named Kalanithi amongst 20 richest people of India.
In June 2010, he entered into the aviation industry by acquiring a 37.75 percent stake in low-cost carrier SpiceJet for Rs 750 crore. He eventually took this to 75 per cent. In a year, he seemed to turn around the airline’s fortunes but re-sold it to the original promoters five years later.
It displayed his keen business acumen as he entered into a then unknown field before the prices ballooned, thus cutting down on risk.
He co-owns Sun Direct, a Direct-To-Home (DTH) service along with Astro Group, which has 4.5 million subscribers. He has often been acknowledged for identifying “the next big thing” and implementing it before his rivals. Adding upon that he says: “If I’m going to follow the herd, I’ll be one among the crowd... All my steps are calculated, I am not going blindly with intuition.”
In May 2007, followers of M Karunanidhi's son M. K. Alagiri attacked Maran's newspaper office after a survey in the newspaper claimed that M. K. Stalin was the preferred successor to M Karunanidhi. Later in 2008, the dispute between Maran and Karunanidhi families was resolved.
In 2014, the Central Bureau of Investigation filed a charge sheet against Kalanithi and his brother, Dayanidhi Maran alleging the Marans of arm-twisting former Aircel owner, Sivasankaran into selling Aircel to Maxis.
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