Global technology giant Google is in talks to buy 5 per cent stake in Vodafone Idea Ltd, a company owned by Vodafone PLC of UK and Aditya Birla group.

The Financial Times reported on Thursday that Google parent firm, Alphabet had also held talks about acquiring a stake in Reliance Jio – owned by Reliance Industries -- but has lagged behind other investors like Facebook in securing a deal. By buying stake in Vodafone Idea, Google would pit against Facebook and an increasingly dominant Jio, but the company could also make multiple investments in India.

A spokesperson of Aditya Birla group headquartered in Mumbai declined to comment.

Vodafone Idea has a market valuation of only Rs 16,724 crore as on Thursday as compared to the valuation of Reliance Jio of $65 billion (Rs 4.87 trillion).

Analysts said the transaction will be a lifeline deal for Vodafone Idea which has been ordered by the Supreme Court to pay Rs 53,000 crore adjusted gross revenues dues to the government.

Jio is also in separate talks to raise an additional 2.5 per cent from Microsoft for $2 billion. On April 21, Reliance had announced sale of 10 per cent stake in Jio Platforms to Facebook for $5.7 billion or Rs 43,574 crore.