Arun Prabhu

Practice Areas

Partner (Head – Technology and Telecom)

Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT);

General Corporate; Capital Markets.

Arun advises extensively on matters relating to complex intellectual property, telecom, e-commerce, data protection and privacy, including issues surrounding data collection, processing, protection and retention, in addition to the formulation of policies and best practices designed to mitigate the legal risks associated with handling of data. He specialises in offering sector specific, cutting edge advice in relation to technology to clients who are exposed to increased industry specific risks.

He regularly advises on the intersection between business and emerging technologies. Arun advises both, international and domestic clients, on technology-related transactional and advisory matters across sectors ranging from banking, insurance, healthcare, internet and telecommunications to media and broadcasting. He regularly advices on large scale acquisitions of, or investments into, technology and data centric entities. Some of his key transactions in this regard include Equinix Acquisition of GPX’s data center business in India, IronMountain’s strategic investment into Web Werks India Private Limited and Adani’s strategic relationship with Google.

His transactional work involves enabling complex technology procurement and outsourcing contracts, and software development and licensing arrangements. Recent key transactions have involved assisting Equinix Inc., Adaniconnex Private Limited, Tata Digital Limited, Hinduja Global Solutions Limited, Sequoia Capital, Warburg Pincus, SBI General Insurance and several large banks and financial services institutions and private equity investors in India with key technology transactions.

He writes, speaks, comments and consults extensively with industry associations, embassies, self-regulatory organizations and think tanks, including FICCI, CII, ASSOCHAM on the emerging Indian legal regime surrounding data protection. He has been conducting training for his clients, basis the recently released drafts of the Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022 and the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022.

Relevant Experience:

• Blackstone on their acquisition of a majority stake in R-Systems International, a global technology and analytics company, for a total consideration of USD 359 Million.

• Hinduja Global Solutions on their sale of healthcare services business to Baring Private Equity Asia for total transaction consideration of USD 1.2 Billion.

• Viacom Limited on the strategic partnership with Bodhi Tree (promoted by James Murdoch and Uday Shankar) where Bodhi Tree led a fund-raising round of USD 1.78 Billion.

• Google LLC in relation to the 100% acquisition of Provino Technologies Inc (Provino U.S), a company engaged in the business of developing interconnect platforms for SoCs, and the purchase of a direct 10% stake in Provino U.S.' subsidiary in India, Provino Technologies Private Limited.

• Amazon on a range of strategic initiatives, acquisitions including into the Good Glamm Group, Purpule Technologies, Smallcase and Cashify. Continue to advise Amazon on investments and data privacy advice on specific products.

• Meta Inc., on data privacy aspects of their operations and platform related compliance obligations.

• Alphabet Inc., on regulatory considerations for several product and services offered in India and data privacy related advise on strategic partnerships in India.

• Krafton Inc., on its strategic investments into Nodwin Gaming, Pratilipi, Kuku FM and Nautilus Gaming.

• Dream11 on their strategic investment in Rario, a Web3.0 based NFT trading platform.

• Credavenue Private Limited on its acquisition of Spocto Solutions Private Limited and Blue Vine Technologies Limited (Corpository), which are online platforms that provide AI based information analysis solutions to businesses.

• Vitol Asia Pte. Ltd. on their strategic investment in SUN Mobility Pte. Ltd., which operates in the renewable energy space and provides services across the electric vehicle operation infrastructure

• Equinix Asia Pacific Pte Limited on their acquisition of GPX Inc’s data center business in India and entry strategy into India.

• World’s largest private equity fund on establishing a data center platform in India.

• Truecaller on a range of data privacy and technology related initiatives in India.

• Adani Group in relation to their investment in the data center business, and formation of a joint venture with ECX Inc for development of data centers in India.

• Advising a large listed healthcare service provider on strategic collaboration with a large US listed technology company for development of smart healthcare centric solutions.

• Advised Iron Mountain Inc., on a strategic joint venture with Web Werks India Private Limited a large Indian data center operator.

• Advised Reliance Corporate IT Park Limited (“Jio”) in relation to their strategic business relationship with Microsoft Corporation and Microsoft Corporation India Private Limited wherein Microsoft Corporation would deploy its Azure framework at Jio Datacenters and MS India would run and operate such data centers. This was one-of-a-kind strategic collaboration between MS and Jio.

Professional Memberships

Bar Council of Karnataka

Publications

• The RBI’s Digital Lending Recommendations: A Sign of the Road Ahead?- The RBI’s Digital Lending Recommendations: A Sign of the Road Ahead? | India Corporate Law (cyrilamarchandblogs.com) September 5, 2022

• A practical data framework for doing business in India- A practical data framework for doing business in India | Mint (livemint.com) November 24, 2022

• The Personal Data Protection Bill 2018: A Summary- Personal-Data-Protection-Bill-2018.pdf (cyrilshroff.com) July 30, 2018

• The Personal Data Protection Bill 2019: An Analysis- The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019: An Analysis | India Corporate Law (cyrilamarchandblogs.com) December 11, 2019

• India’s Telecommunication Bill: A case for balance and elegance- India’s Telecommunication Bill: A case for balance and elegance | Mint (livemint.com) October 4, 2022

• India: Comparing the Personal Data Protection Bill 2018 with the GDPR- India: Comparing the Personal Data Prot...Bill 2018 with the GDPR | DataGuidance (cyrilshroff.com) December, 2018

• Aadhar and private firms: State of play of section 57- Aadhar and private firms: State of play of section 57 -India | Law.asia December 21, 2018

• The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019: An update on developments- Untitled-1 (cyrilshroff.com) January 10, 2020

• The privacy of employees versus the safety of everyone- Opinion | The privacy of employees versus the safety of everyone | Mint (livemint.com) March 17, 2020

• Client-Alert: The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021- Client-Alert-Information-Technology.pdf (cyrilshroff.com) February 26, 2021

• The Report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Data Protection Bill, 2019: Curiouser and Curiouser- Client-Alert-DP-Bill-1912.pdf (cyrilshroff.com) December 19, 2021

• The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 (Part I)- The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 - Part I | India Corporate Law (cyrilamarchandblogs.com) November 23, 2022

• The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 (Part II)- The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 – Part II | India Corporate Law (cyrilamarchandblogs.com) November 24, 2022

• The Draft Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022: A Work in Progress- The Draft Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022: A Work in Progress | India Corporate Law (cyrilamarchandblogs.com) September 27, 2022

• FICCI CAM Entertainment Law Book, 2020- Untitled (cyrilshroff.com) April 2020