Comments
Flipkart is expected to make a revised offer in the next few days for buying Snapdeal, after its first proposal of $850 million was rejected by the board of the smaller rival.
The new offer is likely to be closer to the $1-billion mark, which was the initial asking price for the acquisition of the beleaguered e-commerce marketplace, sources privy to the development said.
They did not wish to be identified as discussions are still on and the deal has not yet been signed.
They added that if the terms are accepted, the deal will be completed within a month or so.
When contacted, Snapdeal, SoftBank and Flipkart declined to comment.
Snapdeal’s board had already rejected a takeover offer of $800-850 million (around ₹5,500 crore) from Flipkart, as it felt the amount undervalued the company given that the due diligence report was clean.
SoftBank, Snapdeal’s largest investor, has been proactively mediating the sale for the past few months. The board of Snapdeal also has representation from its founders (Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal), Nexus Venture Partners and Kalaari Capital.
Other deals
Snapdeal is also engaged in separate discussions for selling FreeCharge (mobile wallet operations) and Vulcan Express (logistics arm). These deals are also likely to be closed over the next few weeks.
The deal between Snapdeal and Flipkart, if completed, will mark the biggest acquisition in the Indian e-commerce space.
One of the leading contenders in the Indian e-tailing segment, Snapdeal has seen its fortunes failing amid strong competition from Amazon and Flipkart.
Snapdeal’s valuations have also plummeted from about $6.5 billion in February 2016. SoftBank has already written off over $1 billion on valuation of its investment in Snapdeal.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.