Amazon may counter Walmart’s bid for Flipkart in a bid to gain ecommerce dominance India

E-commerce giant Amazon may submit a rival bid to buy Flipkart — India’s largest e-tailer, according to a report by Mint. The Jeff Bezos-led company’s move comes even as Flipkart is in advanced level of talks with Walmart, another United States-based retail giant, to sell a majority stake.

The report states that Amazon, which is also one of the largest e-commerce services in India, has held early exploratory talks to purchase Flipkart.

On the other hand, Walmart is keen to buy 55 percent of Flipkart through a mix of primary and secondary share purchases, in a deal that could be valued at USD 21 billion, to report says. Moneycontrol couldn’t independently verify the report.

Key Flipkart investors such as Tiger Global Management, Accel Partners, Naspers and IDG Ventures are expected to sell their stake for the deal with Walmart.

Since launching in India in 2013, Amazon has invested around USD 3 billion and has committed to invest an equal amount. Amazon trails Flipkart by a small margin in India’s ecommerce space and if the talks go through, Amazon stands to gain dominance in the segment. A successful bid will likely give Amazon a deeper reach in Indian markets. Amazon may also gain from Flipkart-led fashion e-tailers Jabong and Myntra, the Indian arm of e-Bay and financial technology company PhonePe.

In August 2017, SoftBank’s Vision Fund infused around USD 1.4 billion into Flipkart. According to a report by BusinessLine, Flipkart’s valuation soared to USD 17 to 19 billion in January when Tiger Global sold 2.2 percent of its stake.

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