After Walmart, Google now Amazon may offer to buy rival Flipkart: Reports

Even as media reports suggest that the negotiations between Walmart Inc and Flipkart are in the final stage, a Mint newspaper report suggests that Amazon.com Inc may make an offer to buy Flipkart. The report further suggests, Amazon held early exploratory talks to buy Flipkart India but the deal with Walmart is more likely.

Interestingly, last month there was a buzz that Google too was keen to invest in Flipkart which has cornered nearly 40% of the domestic e-tail pie to emerge as the current leader in the space.

Meanwhile, a person from the matter told Reuters that the probability of a deal with Amazon was low, and that any such deal could spark monopoly concerns as Flipkart and Amazon dominate India’s e-commerce market. The person declined to be identified as discussions were private. However, Amazon declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. Flipkart and Walmart did not respond to requests for comment.

As per the Reuters report, Walmart is in talks to buy over 40 per cent of Flipkart in potentially one of its biggest overseas deals. A deal with Flipkart could give Walmart an access to an e-commerce market that Morgan Stanley estimated to be worth $200 billion in a decade’s time.

Walmart will buy a majority stake in Flipkart through a mix of primary and secondary share purchases in a deal that could value the Indian firm at $21 billion, Mint reported. Flipkart, founded by former Amazon employees Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal in 2007, controls nearly 40 per cent of India’s online retail market, ahead of Amazon, showed estimates by researcher Forrester.