Bloomberg reported Friday that Flipkart’s board has approved the sale of a roughly 75-percent stake to the Walmart group, which also includes Google parent Alphabet. The report states that Japan’s SoftBank will also sell the group its stake, which is in excess of 20 percent. The deal would value Flipkart at around $20bn.
Meanwhile, the Times of India reported Friday that, when the Walmart takeover takes place, Flipkart chairman Sachin Bansal will step down. His co-founder, Binny Bansal (no relation) would stay on — according to this report, Walmart only wants one of the co-founders to hang around.
The two Bansals used to be colleagues at Amazon before — mirroring the U.S. firm’s starting point — they started Flipkart as an online bookstore 11 years ago. The Times of India report cites a source as saying the companies were working out the sale of Sachin Bansal’s shares to Walmart. The pair together own 10 percent of Flipkart’s shares so, if both reports are accurate, Sachin Bansal’s stake is presumably rolled into the board-approved agreement.
Amazon was on Thursday reported to have made a counter-offer for a 60-percent stake in Flipkart. Its proposed deal apparently included a non-compete clause for the Bansals to sign.
