Bengaluru: A large number of former employees of Flipkart, India’s most valuable start-up which was taken over by Walmart last week, are yet to receive a formal communication from the online retailer on the status of their employee stock ownership plans, six former employees said.
On Sunday, Flipkart sent out a short missive to roughly 300 former employees informing them about the share repurchase plan for ex-employees, saying that it “was unmatched among private companies in India.”
In the letter, Flipkart informed employees that 30% of their vested stocks could be sold at the time of closing of the deal between Walmart and Flipkart. No mention was made of the remaining 70%, but Flipkart separately clarified to a bunch of former employees that the remaining stock could be sold in the event of Flipkart going public or at the time of its next share sale to existing or new investors, a former employee who received the Flipkart letter said.
Apart from the 300 former employees, the rest of Flipkart’s ex-employees are yet to receive a formal communication from the company on the status of their holdings.
“Still no word from Flipkart. I’m hoping that the company will reach out to us by the end of this week and clear the air about the status of our ESOPs, but it’s very disappointing that there has been no official or unofficial communication so far. And the worst part is that the Sunday mail went out only to a select batch of former employees,” said a former executive who requested anonymity.
Flipkart did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.