TOI previously reported that Walmart is looking to value Flipkart richly, as it looks to gain a majority shareholding in the company through a mix of primary and secondary sale of shares. The transaction will see most of Flipkart's early investors like Tiger Global sell their shares in the company to Walmart. TOI also reported that SoftBank may part-sell its stake despite it having invested in the web retailer less than a year ago. In all, Walmart is expected to pump $8-10 billion into the Flipkart deal.
Industry experts said Walmart is a better fit for Flipkart as it has long-term plans for the Indian market across online and offline retail. The US-based retailer has been making investments to grow its online presence and counter Amazon's growing dominance in its home market with acquisitions like Jet.com for about $3 billion in 2016. Flipkart's talks with Amazon for a possible deal was first reported by business daily Mint on Wednesday. When contacted by TOI, Amazon and Flipkart declined to comment on the matter.
Amazon - which has been aggressively battling the domestic e-tailer, with billions of dollars lined up for investment in India - may look to get Flipkart into its fold to broaden its
size of the business here. It has launched multiple products like Amazon Prime, Video and Music, and is consistently pushing incentives to get more shoppers onto its platform.
Last year, Flipkart raised $4 billion when SoftBank, along with other marquee investors like Tencent, pumped in capital. The investment gave the homegrown e-tailer fresh ammunition to take on Amazon. Amazon has invested over $3 billion in India and may not be ready to dish out the kind of valuation that Walmart is ready to offer to Flipkart, industry insiders said. For Amazon, India is the most important market outside of the US after it failed to gain a foothold in China.