I wil admit I thought Amazon would try harder to buy Flipkart but I guess they feel they don’t need to.
I am still thinking Amazon wins in the end – Walmart isn’t winning in the USA so not sure they are setup to win in India.
Will be interesting to see if Flipkart goes regional at all or just hunkers down in India.
All in all this is great news for India and puts the Asian start scene front snd center as this is the biggest ecommerce deal ever.
Also waiting to see how big this tax bill is and how that is all dealt with.
Walmart Beats Amazon in the Battle to Buy India’s Flipkart | Fortune
Add this from Axios:
Walmart made it official this morning, announcing that it will pay $16 billion for a 77% stake in Indian e-commerce leader Flipkart. Or, put another way, Amazon just suffered the sort of defeat that is usually reserved for physical retailers.
- Initial confirmation came via SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, during an earnings presentation. The official Walmart press release appeared hours later.
- Word is that all Flipkart investors had the opportunity to sell their entire stake, which SoftBank took advantage of. Backers that are retaining at least some of their position include Accel, Microsoft, Tencent and Tiger Global.
- Walmart’s early aggressiveness appears to have been key to its win, although Flipkart also had concerns that an Amazon tie-up could face antitrust scrutiny.
- For Flipkart, this provides the company with a permanent capital structure without sacrificing managerial independence. It still expects to do an IPO — think Walmex 2.0 — but that runway has been significantly extended.
- For India’s startup ecosystem, this could be a game changer. Not only in terms of inspiring other prospective entrepreneurs, but also in the sheer amount of cash that Flipkart employees will have to invest in their own startups or in someone else’s.
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