This Time It's Personal: Amazon Offers To Buy 60% of Flipkart, Blowing Up Walmart's Bid

If nothing else, Amazon aims to make Walmart expend more resources if the latter's bid prevails.

But the competing bid from Walmart also underscores the growing evidence that with the jet.com acquisition and now Flipkart, Walmart is making a serious effort to threaten Amazon's dominance in ecommerce. The eventual global challenger to Amazon may ultimately be Chinese rather than American, but Walmart is not fading away, which may be good news for consumers. JL


Kritika Saxena reports in CNBC:

Amazon has made a formal offer to buy a 60% stake in Flipkart. Amazon's offer is on par with Walmart's bid for the Indian company. Amazon is also seeking a non-compete agreement with Flipkart's founders.The Walmart offer includes the buyout of over 80% stake. Walmart proposed to retain Flipkart's current structure, while Amazon has made no such details known.
Amazon has emerged as new contender for Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart. The global e-tailer has made a formal offer to buy a 60% stake in Flipkart,  sources said.
Amazon's offer is likely to be on par with Walmart's bid for the Indian company. The giant is also seeking a non-compete agreement with Flipkart's founders, according to the sources.
The Amazon bid offers a breakup fee of $2 billion, while the Walmart offer includes the buyout of over 80% stake.
The company, helmed by billionaire Jeff Bezos, said it does not offer comments on rumours and speculations.Walmart proposed to retain Flipkart's current structure, while Amazon has made not such details known.
Walmart is expected to gain three to four seats on Flipkart's ten-member board.
Walmart has said it will retain the management team of Flipkart including CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy
The buzz of the $12 billion deal between Walmart and Flipkart recently got louder with Softbank approaching Walmart's global CEO.
The e-commerce major's investors and founders are in favour of the deal with Walmart, according to the sources.
The sources added that Sachin Bansal, founder of Flipkart,  was in the US last week to oversee final lap negotiations with Walmart.
The Walmart global team may come to India soon to close the deal.