Flipkart - Revision history

Jyoti: /* Unanswered questions */

2018-11-15T22:44:32Z

‎Unanswered questions

Jyoti: /* Personnel issues */

2018-11-15T12:56:44Z

‎Personnel issues

Jyoti: /* ESOPs enrich employees */

2018-11-15T12:54:34Z

‎ESOPs enrich employees

Jyoti: /* What led to Sachin Bansal's exit? */

2018-07-10T21:08:56Z

‎What led to Sachin Bansal's exit?

Jyoti: /* What led to Sachin Bansal's exit? */

2018-06-09T14:29:28Z

‎What led to Sachin Bansal's exit?

Jyoti: /* India’s biggest M&A deal ran into a political headwind */

2018-06-09T14:27:13Z

‎India’s biggest M&A deal ran into a political headwind

Jyoti: /* Flipkart buys back $350m to convert into private limited co. */

2018-05-11T21:19:56Z

‎Flipkart buys back $350m to convert into private limited co.

Jyoti: /* 2018, May: Walmart picks up a 77% stake */

2018-05-11T21:16:37Z

‎2018, May: Walmart picks up a 77% stake

Jyoti: /* 2007- April 2018 */

2018-05-11T21:14:43Z

‎2007- April 2018

Jyoti: /* Flipkart, a brief history */

2018-05-11T21:14:07Z

‎Flipkart, a brief history

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:44, 15 November 2018
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	Walmart and Flipkart’s joint statement on the issue also hinted at this. They said that while the investigation did not find evidence to corroborate the complainant’s assertions against Binny, “it did reveal other lapses in judgment, particularly a lack of transparency, related to how Binny responded to the situation”.		Walmart and Flipkart’s joint statement on the issue also hinted at this. They said that while the investigation did not find evidence to corroborate the complainant’s assertions against Binny, “it did reveal other lapses in judgment, particularly a lack of transparency, related to how Binny responded to the situation”.
		+
		+	===Binny and woman had consensual affair: Probe===
		+	[https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/binny-and-woman-had-consensual-affair-probe-concluded/articleshow/66627067.cms November 15, 2018: ''The Times of India'']
		+
		+
		+	An independent probe into alleged "serious personal misconduct" by Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal had concluded that Bansal and the woman had a consensual affair, Bloomberg reported, quoting two persons familiar with the matter. Bansal, 37, stepped down immediately following the probe, which he denies.
		+
		+	The accusation of sexual assault came in late July, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, who requested anonymity because the details aren’t public.
		+
		+	The person said the accuser was a former Flipkart employee, while a second person who knew of the situation said the woman never worked there.
		+
		+	“While the investigation did not find evidence to corroborate the complainant’s assertions against Binny, it did reveal other lapses in judgment, particularly a lack of transparency, related to how Binny responded to the situation,” Walmart said in a statement.
		+
		+	Walmart had completed its $16 billion purchase of a majority stake in the Indian company in August in a deal that lifted Bansal’s net worth to $1 billion.

	=2015: good times=		=2015: good times=

@@ Line 392: / Line 392: @@
 =Personnel issues=
-==Binny Bansal resigns over 'misconduct'
+==Binny Bansal resigns over 'misconduct'==
 [https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F11%2F14&entity=Ar00305&sk=78153E06&mode=text  Flipkart promoter quits after ‘personal misconduct’ probe, November 14, 2018: ''The Times of India'']

← Older revision		Revision as of 12:54, 15 November 2018
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	For existing employees, Esops provide recognition.		For existing employees, Esops provide recognition.
		+
		+	=Personnel issues=
		+	==Binny Bansal resigns over 'misconduct'
		+	[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F11%2F14&entity=Ar00305&sk=78153E06&mode=text Flipkart promoter quits after ‘personal misconduct’ probe, November 14, 2018: ''The Times of India'']
		+
		+
		+	'' ‘Uncorroborated’ Allegations Left Me Stunned: Binny ''
		+
		+	Six months after he led Flipkart, India’s most valuable start-up, into the biggest global acquisition deal in e-commerce with Walmart, the world’s largest company by revenue, Binny Bansal quit abruptly on Tuesday as chairman and group CEO following an “independent investigation into an allegation of serious personal misconduct”.
		+
		+	The 36-year-old Binny, who co-founded Flipkart with fellow IITian Sachin Bansal in 2007, has “strongly denied the allegation”. “Nevertheless, we had a responsibility to ensure the investigation was deliberate and thorough. While the investigation did not find evidence to corroborate the complainant’s assertions against Binny, it did reveal other lapses in judgment, particularly a lack of transparency, related to how Binny responded to the situation,” said a joint Flipkart-Walmart statement.
		+
		+	In a separate statement, Binny said the allegations were “uncorroborated after a thorough investigation completed by an independent law firm”, adding that they had left him “stunned”.
		+
		+	Acknowledging that “these have been challenging times for my family and me”, he said, “I am concerned that this may become a distraction for the company and the team, for which I am deeply sorry.”
		+
		+	As Flipkart’s largest individual shareholder with about 5.6%, he will continue to be on the board – but his exit from the day-to-day management of the group marks the end of the Era of the Bansals.
		+
		+	Ironically, it was Binny who went head-to-head with Flipkart’s other founder in pushing the deal with Walmart, leading to Sachin quitting the company lock, stock and barrel – his 6% stake leaving him about a billion dollars richer, but from almost all accounts, somewhat bitter. Sachin, who had been Flipkart’s chairman and longest-serving CEO, is thought to have favoured a deal with Amazon, the King Kong of e-comm, also the world’s second-most valuable company (after Apple).
		+
		+	According to a Reuters report, the investigation “stemmed from an allegation of sexual assault that dates back a few years”. It quotes a source saying, “In late July ... an allegation came to us,” adding that “the individual concerned was a former Flipkart associate who was not with the company at the time of making the allegation”.
		+
		+	While both Binny and Walmart are believed to have agreed to say nothing beyond their coordinated official statements, some old-timers at Flipkart feel the US giant, which now owns 77% in the Bengaluru-headquartered company, has used an “old case” to assume total control of their new acquisition. Others say that Walmart's problem was with “non-disclosure” of the alleged incident.
		+
		+	According to the joint statement, Kalyan Krishnamurthy will continue to be CEO of Flipkart, while Ananth Narayanan will still head Myntra and Jabong, reporting into Krishnamurthy. There is no word yet on who the new chairman will be.
		+
		+	===Unanswered questions===
		+	[https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/binny-bansals-exit-a-resignation-that-raises-more-questions-than-it-answers/articleshow/66616654.cms Binny Bansal's exit: A resignation that raises more questions than it answers, November 14, 2018: ''The Times of India'']
		+
		+
		+	Flipkart’s remaining co-founder, Binny Bansal, resigned from his post as the Group CEO; the parent company Walmart issued a cryptic statement, saying the decision was made after allegation of “serious personal misconduct” against Binny — he has denied the allegations, saying he was “stunned”. So, why did he quit, despite Walmart saying that the “investigation did not find evidence to corroborate the complainant’s assertions against Binny”?
		+
		+
		+	'''What misconduct? ''' A report by Reuters, quoting an unnamed source, says an allegation of a sexual assault by Binny surfaced in July — the complainant, a former Flipkart employee, alleged Binny sexually assaulted her some years back. While Binny has denied the allegation, Walmart cited the “lack of transparency” and “other lapses in judgement” on Binny’s part in its letter to the stock exchange.
		+
		+
		+	'''Part of the plan? ''' Walmart, which bought 77% stake in Flipkart in May earlier this year for $16 billion, had been contemplating replacing Binny for some months now as he was not involved in the day-to-day operations of the company, according to a report.
		+
		+
		+	'''So, is he out? ''' Not quite, as Binny, in his letter to Flipkart’s employees, has stated that he will continue to be a member of the company’s board and a significant equity shareholder, though he admitted to the investigation’s verdict about lapses in judgement and lack of transparency on his part.
		+
		+
		+	'''What Binny's former colleagues said? ''' Binny’s exit from the e-commerce company, just months after its sale to Walmart, has flummoxed his old colleagues. But many of them had predicted in private months ago that Walmart would move ahead without Flipkart founders in tow.
		+
		+
		+	Binny decided to stay under the Walmart leadership even after his co-founder Sachin Bansal quit in disgust just before the $16-billion sale in May 2018. “Sachin was the more feisty among the two founders, while an amiable Binny was expected to ensure continuity. Now Binny’s exit under tightly-scripted secrecy clauses, even as he retains board seat and shares, strengthens belief that Walmart was interested in life beyond Bansals,” said a former Flipkart executive.
		+
		+	“One cannot help but feel that Binny was jettisoned for more than one reason,” said another former colleague when asked about allegations of personal misconduct against him. He said the Flipkart grapevine was buzzing about the new owner digging out an old, unproven allegation against Binny some three months ago.
		+
		+	Non-disclosure might have been Binny’s biggest undoing. It’s an issue that many global companies take very seriously. Sources close to Walmart said Binny did not make any disclosure about the allegation of personal misconduct against him to Walmart at the time of the latter’s acquisition of Flipkart earlier this year.
		+
		+	Walmart and Flipkart’s joint statement on the issue also hinted at this. They said that while the investigation did not find evidence to corroborate the complainant’s assertions against Binny, “it did reveal other lapses in judgment, particularly a lack of transparency, related to how Binny responded to the situation”.

	=2015: good times=		=2015: good times=

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:08, 10 July 2018
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	Sachin also did not respond to an emailed query.		Sachin also did not respond to an emailed query.
		+
		+	==== The real reason for Sachin's exit====
		+	[https://www.gadgetsnow.com/tech-news/flipkart-ceo-binny-bansal-shares-the-real-reason-for-co-founder-sachins-exit/articleshow/64912134.cms?utm_source=toiweb&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=toiweb_hptopnews Mugdha Variyar, Flipkart CEO Binny Bansal shares the real reason for co-founder Sachin's exit, July 9, 2018: ''The Times of India'']
		+
		+
		+	Flipkart Group chief executive Binny Bansal said cofounder Sachin Bansal and he wanted to do “different things” and that it was a good time for the latter to exit since a major investor had come in.
		+
		+	He was speaking on the topic of Sachin Bansal’s exit for the first time since the $16-billion deal by Walmart to acquire the company.
		+
		+	The deal, announced in May, saw the shock exit of Sachin Bansal who, along with Binny Bansal, started Flipkart in 2007 from an apartment in Bengaluru. Sachin Bansal is expected to make at least $1 billion after selling his 5.5% stake.
		+
		+	Sachin Bansal was the group chairman of Flipkart after he stepped down as the company’s CEO in 2016 and was deeply involved in the negotiations with Walmart.
		+
		+	“Sachin played a very crucial role in building the company. He was the CEO for most of the time of the company, and his vision steered us to where we are,” Binny Bansal said during a fireside chat with Subrata Mitra, partner at venture capital firm Accel, at an event on Saturday.
		+
		+	“Going forward, there are different things (Sachin Bansal) wants to do and I want to do, so that’s the decision we took. I think it was a good time because a major investor had come in,” he said.
		+
		+	In a Facebook post announcing his exit from Flipkart in May, Sachin Bansal had said he would take time off for some “personal projects” and “catch up on gaming” and brush up his “coding skills”.
		+
		+	ET had reported at the time of the deal that Sachin Bansal had been very disappointed by events that had left him on the sidelines. The report also said Walmart did not see a role for two cofounders on the board and wanted to retain the successful partnership of Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy and group CEO Binny Bansal.
		+
		+	“Every person has to decide for oneself what they want to do,” Mitra told ET on the sidelines of Saturday’s event organised by startup funding platform LetsVenture.
		+
		+	“Even on the investor side, some are there (in Flipkart) and some are not. We each had to make up our minds,” he said.
		+
		+	Accel was one of Flipkart’s earliest backers, having put in more than $100 million in the ecommerce giant. It is expected to pocket $800 million-$1 billion in returns by selling its shares in Flipkart as part of the company’s acquisition by Walmart.
		+
		+	Accel’s exit from Flipkart was the biggest for the fund in India and also ranked very high globally, Mitra told ET.
		+
		+	At the fireside chat, Mitra defined Binny Bansal as the “backend guy” and Sachin Bansal as the “vision” of Flipkart.
		+
		+	Binny Bansal talked of how the duo developed their roles after launching the company. They initially wanted to start a shopping comparison engine but eventually decided to start a shopping website because of a dearth of good online retail platforms at the time in India.
		+
		+	“In the beginning, we hadn’t defined our roles. He was better at doing things like designing the website and (search engine optimisation), while I couldn’t get my head around it,” Bansal said.
		+
		+	“On the other hand, I was more intuitive in meeting vendors and building the catalogue. These gradually became the roles. Sachin would think of how to grow the business and how to get customers, while I would think of how this could work at 10x the scale,” he said.
		+
		+	The Walmart-Flipkart deal is expected to close later this year, with the companies awaiting a green light from the Competition Commission of India.
		+
		+	Asked by ET about protests by trade associations against the deal, Binny Bansal deflected the question, saying it fell under “Walmart’s domain”.
		+
		+	He also highlighted during the event that financial services would be a major part of the company’s strategy going forward, and that Flipkart’s financial-technology platform PhonePe was growing at 30-40% a month. “The next 30 years are going to be very exciting. There are many opportunities for us in the core business.
		+
		+	There are other opportunities as well, such as in financial services,” Binny Bansal said. “PhonePe is growing at 30-40% month-on-month, like Flipkart did in its early days. The future of financial services is digital and we see ourselves having a critical role in it.”
		+
		+	ET reported last week that financial products would contribute 15-20% of Flipkart’s growth in the next few years.

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:29, 9 June 2018
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	=== What led to Sachin Bansal's exit?===		=== What led to Sachin Bansal's exit?===
−	[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F05%2F29&entity=Ar02113&sk=DCEAF6E4&mode=text Samidha Sharma, What led to Sachin’s exit from Flipkart, May 30, 2018: ''The Times of India'']	+	[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F05%2F29&entity=Ar02113&sk=DCEAF6E4&mode=text Samidha Sharma, What led to Sachin’s exit from Flipkart, May 29, 2018: ''The Times of India'']

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:27, 9 June 2018
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	Maintaining a distance with the visitors from Bentonville is seen as the best bet given that opponents can do little to block a clearance since Walmart only needs to inform the Reserve Bank of India about the transaction apart from obtaining approval from the Competition Commission of India, which vets deals above a certain threshold.		Maintaining a distance with the visitors from Bentonville is seen as the best bet given that opponents can do little to block a clearance since Walmart only needs to inform the Reserve Bank of India about the transaction apart from obtaining approval from the Competition Commission of India, which vets deals above a certain threshold.
		+
		+	=== What led to Sachin Bansal's exit?===
		+	[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F05%2F29&entity=Ar02113&sk=DCEAF6E4&mode=text Samidha Sharma, What led to Sachin’s exit from Flipkart, May 30, 2018: ''The Times of India'']
		+
		+
		+	''How The Co-Founder Fell Out With Tiger’s Fixel, Who Was Once His Biggest Backer''
		+
		+	Tiger Global’s Lee Fixel and Flipkart’s co-founder and CEO of nine years Sachin Bansal enjoyed a very special investor-founder relationship. Ever since the New York-based fund manager spotted the unrelated duo of Sachin and Binny Bansal in 2009 — two years after they founded an online bookstore in Bengaluru — it was a partnership that seemed poised to go down in the nascent history of India’s consumer internet industry.
		+
		+	We wrote in our May 10 edition — after Walmart bought a 77% stake in Flipkart, valuing it at $21billion — how Tiger and Fixel emerged as the online retailer’s champion investor, and its operator through its executive who’s currently the e-tailer’s CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy, and the one who brokered the Walmart deal.
		+
		+	'''Relationship started to turn by 2015'''
		+
		+	This coincided with a rocky year at the e-retailer and also at the investment fund, which manages more than $25 billion
		+
		+	in assets. Under the CEO-ship of Sachin, Flipkart’s strategy of going mobile-app only, turning into a marketplace model instead of being inventory-led, and letting product take precedence over business grossly misfired. The first signs of a chasm started to develop between the two from here on.
		+
		+	A person close to the Flipkart story says, “The irony of the situation is that when Sachin decided to leave and sell his entire shareholding to Walmart because he was not able to get a larger role and special rights for founders and minority shareholders, it was Fixel who led the camp that pushed for his ouster. From being biggest supporter, he had by now turned totally against Sachin.”
		+
		+
		+	'''So what changed?'''
		+
		+	''Tiger under the cosh to deliver on Flipkart''
		+
		+	Founded by Chase Coleman in 2001, Tiger started off primarily as a Wall Street hedge fund, but went on to build an impressive private market portfolio of hot internet and tech companies across the US, China and India. The fund established a beachhead here in 2007, when it bet on Just Dial and MakeMyTrip.
		+
		+	Its India operations, started by Feroz Dewan, were taken into top gear by Fixel. The 38-year-old became an India bull after seeing the China ecommerce market play out. Just the time he took a wager on Flipkart, Tiger had bet on JD.com, which IPOed at a $25-billion valuation in 2014. Having invested $2 billion in India, with half of that capital ploughed into Flipkart, Tiger was the web retailer’s largest and most influential shareholder till SoftBank came in last year, and took majority ownership by partly buying the fund’s shares.
		+
		+	Across 2014-15, Fixel began backing startups in series-A rounds at dizzying valuations. While the euphoria lasted for a couple of years, Fixel’s position at Tiger started to look shaky after the funding boom came to an end in mid-2015.
		+
		+	“Dewan was not in line with Fixel’s big bets in India, especially the outsize capital that had gone into Flipkart. This was the time Tiger had led consecutive financing rounds in the online retailer and had marked up its valuation to $15 billion,” says a person in the know. Things came to a head between Dewan and Fixel in 2015, as Tiger went through an internal churn. In May that year, Dewan left the fund, where he was managing $6 billion of the public market portfolio. Scott Shleifer took over from him. Fixel was made the sole head of the firm’s private equity portfolio.
		+
		+	In mid-2016, Shleifer came down to India and met with the top management at Flipkart, a person who was present at the meeting recalls. “Shleifer’s meeting seemed interrogative. Till now, no one other than Fixel had interfaced with Flipkart’s management, so it signalled a big change,” the person says.
		+
		+
		+	'''Did Tiger become a seller in India?'''
		+
		+	An investor, who did not want to be named, says, “Fixel has very strong opinions on certain issues. And if the founder has strong opinions, too, which are on the opposite end, then they clash.” This is what played out between the Flipkart investor and the company’s co-founder and its longest serving CEO.
		+
		+	Sachin’s strained equation with Fixel’s aide Krishnamurthy, who made a return to Flipkart after two years in 2016, added to his deteriorating relationship with his biggest backer. People briefed on the developments say Tiger was under pressure to show returns from its huge India bet. The fund stopped making new investments by the end of 2015. Fixel’s visits to India became infrequent, and in 2016 he became disengaged with his portfolio companies, and Tiger actively started scouting for strategic investors for Flipkart.
		+
		+
		+	'''Flipkart board rallied against Sachin'''
		+
		+	Another person familiar with the goings-on says, “After the missteps of 2015, Flipkart’s board gave a chance to Binny to helm the company. But another year down, Tiger wanted to pass on the baton to a strategic. Fixel and Sachin Bansal went to eBay, PayPal, Microsoft, and Tencent, discussing a potential investment.” In March 2016, they both first engaged with Walmart.
		+
		+	While Sachin continued in a non-operating role, he tried to claw back in 2017, after Krishnamurthy took over as CEO, by introducing a line of private label under ‘Billion’ and launching an artificial intelligence unit. By then, Flipkart had gone back to its successful formula of racking up mobile phone sales and driving up gross merchandise value (GMV) growth, as it fought an aggressive Amazon. And it fared well under the new leadership of Krishnamurthy, who was shaping a turnaround at Flipkart.
		+
		+	People in the know say Sachin was of the view that the e-tailer had stopped investing for the long term and was focusing on simply shoring up growth through sale events. “Even as he tried to make a return, the talks with Walmart started to get serious in 2017. Now, Sachin wanted Walmart to agree to give him a larger role, as the new investor and acquirer, but Fixel was vehemently opposed to the idea and the entire board rallied behind him along with Binny. Walmart went with the board, which led to Sachin quitting and selling his stake fully,” says a person privy to the talks. Sachin was asking for preferential ‘founder rights’, a little too late in the day, in order to win back from Tiger control of the company he co-founded. Other founders sensed it early on, like Ola’s Bhavish Aggarwal, who blocked a secondary deal when Tiger Global was selling its shares to SoftBank, as we first reported in our April 25 edition. Thanks to the favourable rights due to the changes made in the article of association, Aggarwal could scupper the transaction.
		+
		+	Cut to April 2018: The Walmart deal was almost sealed, despite Amazon making an offer of $22.5 billion, which was supported by SoftBank and Sachin. The rest of the shareholders were skittish about an Amazon and Flipkart alliance. “Besides the competition control lens, it would have taken much longer to close a deal with Amazon. Also, the demands laid out by Sachin were likely to delay the transaction or may be even jeopardise the sale. Seeing this, Fixel got Binny on board, and convinced him to steer the deal in the last few weeks,” says another person privy to the matter.
		+
		+	Fixel remains on the Flipkart board with a 4-5% stake, and Binny stays on as the group CEO in addition to taking on Sachin’s executive chairman title. A Tiger spokesperson said, “Neither Fixel nor Tiger Global will have any comments on leadership changes at Flipkart and/or Lee’s personal relationship with Sachin or Binny Bansal.”
		+
		+	Sachin also did not respond to an emailed query.

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:19, 11 May 2018
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	TOI reported on May 3 that, while SoftBank wanted to bring in Amazon and merge Flipkart’s operations with the Jeff Bezos-led ecommerce behemoth, the proposal did not find much favour with other older investors in the company. These early investors in Flipkart were of the view that combining the Indian e-tailer with Amazon would face hurdles with the Competition Control of India.		TOI reported on May 3 that, while SoftBank wanted to bring in Amazon and merge Flipkart’s operations with the Jeff Bezos-led ecommerce behemoth, the proposal did not find much favour with other older investors in the company. These early investors in Flipkart were of the view that combining the Indian e-tailer with Amazon would face hurdles with the Competition Control of India.
		+
		+	===India’s biggest M&A deal ran into a political headwind===
		+	[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F05%2F10&entity=Ar02702&sk=F87958F1&mode=text Sidhartha, India’s biggest M&A deal runs into political headwind, May 10, 2018: ''The Times of India'']
		+
		+	[[File: Jan 2009- Sept 2017- Money raised by Flipkart.jpg\|Jan 2009- Sept 2017- Money raised by Flipkart <br/> From: [https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F05%2F10&entity=Ar02702&sk=F87958F1&mode=text Sidhartha, India’s biggest M&A deal runs into political headwind, May 10, 2018: ''The Times of India'']\|frame\|500px]]
		+
		+	Around a month ago, Walmart president and CEO Doug McMillon wanted to fly down to India to discuss the $16-billion Flipkart deal with key functionaries in the Narendra Modi government and explain how the acquisition of the e-tailer, which has expanded on the back of foreign capital, signals the global giant’s commitment to India.
		+
		+	On most occasions, ministers and top officials would be more than willing to not just discuss the deal but also pose for photographs with a Walmart CEO. But the Bentonville-based retail giant’s team that was chasing the appointments in the national Capital was surprised to find that there was little traction within the government, prompting McMillon to postpone his trip until the announcement.
		+
		+	But the announcement of the largest M&A deal in the country has not brought the 51-year-old Walmart CEO any closer to meetings with senior Modi government officials. NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on Wednesday made the government’s position clear saying the government is at an arm’s length in deals like these but will act as a facilitator for the e-commerce sector.
		+
		+	While the government, led by Modi, has been chasing investments to rev up the sluggish economy, the “lack of interest” in meeting McMillon is completely political. The traders’ lobby, a key vote bank for the BJP, is upset with the deal, with the Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh-affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) and other groups, such as the Confederation of All India Traders, launching a campaign to block the deal that will pit Walmart against Amazon in the Indian market.
		+
		+	“SJM, R-S-S and BJP have a consensus that FDI in multibrand retail will not only kill entrepreneurship, it is antifarmer and will kill job creation opportunities in the market. Hence, it is rightly kept out. But strangely, Walmart is using the e-commerce route to circumvent the rules to attack Indian market. It is to be noted that nowhere in the world, Walmart has a market place model,” SJM co-convener Ashwani Mahajan wrote in a letter to Modi on Wednesday, hours before the deal was announced.
		+
		+	And, with the Karnataka election campaign at its peak, the BJP will not be keen to annoy anyone, leave alone traders who haven’t forgotten the impact of demonetisation and the goods and services tax on their businesses.
		+
		+	Maintaining a distance with the visitors from Bentonville is seen as the best bet given that opponents can do little to block a clearance since Walmart only needs to inform the Reserve Bank of India about the transaction apart from obtaining approval from the Competition Commission of India, which vets deals above a certain threshold.

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:16, 11 May 2018
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	Despite its massive shareholding, Walmart plans to keep Flipkart as a separate brand and have an independent operating structure, the press statement from the brick-and-mortar retailer said.		Despite its massive shareholding, Walmart plans to keep Flipkart as a separate brand and have an independent operating structure, the press statement from the brick-and-mortar retailer said.
		+
		+	==‘Sachin, Binny defined post-Ambani business era’==
		+	[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F05%2F10&entity=Ar02709&sk=F92159F3&mode=text Samidha Sharma, ‘Sachin, Binny defined post-Ambani biz era’, May 10, 2018: ''The Times of India'']
		+
		+
		+	''They Will Further Spur Entrepreneurship, Become Full-Cycle Founder Role Models''
		+
		+	Within a year of working at Amazon’s outpost in Bengaluru, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal — then in their mid 20s — had decided to step out and build a company that would take on the might of the Seattle-based internet giant on its own turf.
		+
		+	The Bansals, who first met at Amazon’s India development centre in 2006, along with another colleague, had prepared a paper plan to start an online comparison site. While the third co-founder never joined, the two IIT-Delhi graduates were resolute. They quit Amazon’s back-end office, which at the time was helmed by Amit Agarwal, the current India head of Amazon, to start their entrepreneurial journey. Sachin, Binny and Agarwal did not know back then they would square off in one of the most aggressive and fiercely-fought battles to win the Indian e-commerce market a few years later.
		+
		+	With Amazon’s entry into domestic online retail still six years away, Flipkart began life in October 2007 out of the tony Wilson Garden neighbourhood in Bengaluru as an e-bookstore. The initial code for the Flipkart website was written by these two young software engineers from Chandigarh, who were a batch apart at the IIT. Sachin was overseeing tech, product and marketing in the early days while Binny helmed the back-end, pricing of books and operations. One of the first few people who joined Flipkart says, “Sachin drove up the traffic on the site through great search engine optimisation in the first few years of launch, which started fetching ad monies in the range of Rs 10-12 lakh per month. This was enough to sustain the company.”
		+
		+	In June 2009, Flipkart registered itself as a private limited entity and lined up external funding of $1 million — spread over three instalments — from Accel Partners, Silicon Valley’s marquee venture capital fund and an investor in Facebook. It wasn’t long before Lee Fixel of Tiger Global, a New York-based investment fund, spotted Flipkart, and from there on the online bookseller was onits way to become a full-blown e-commerce platform, which went on to raise $6 billion in capital in the span of 11 years.
		+
		+	An early investor in the company says, “Sachin and Binny’s biggest contribution has been that they built the next-generation team behind their underlying tech platform, which enabled scale and ultimately the ability to compete with Amazon. Flipkart was the first internet startup that spawned product talent locally. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say they define the post-Ambani business era in India.”
		+
		+	Avnish Bajaj, MD at venture capital fund Matrix Partners, who co-founded Baazee-.com, an online auction site and sold it to eBay in 2004, says, “Sachin and Binny’s hard work has been rewarded. This will further spur entrepreneurial activity in India as they become full-cycle founder role models who have facilitated a huge exit at $20 billion.”
		+
		+	While people credit Sachin for being behind the launch of unique India solutions like cash-on-delivery, shoring up traffic to the site in the first couple of years, and being the face of Flipkart to external investors while fund-raising, Binny is seen by most as the one who brought his expertise to bear in verticals like operations, supply chain and logistics, which are the backbone of an online retail company.
		+
		+	Sachin, who ran Flipkart for nine years as its longestserving CEO, along with Binny and its early team, had aspirations of scale from the time they started, says another Flipkart old-timer. “What defined Flipkart and its founders was its staying power through the past decade amid many highs and lows. The golden period was till about 2014, after which Amazon doubled down on them and many naysayers wrote them off. But that changed in the past one year and now, with Walmart coming in, a lot of question marks on Flipkart have been set to rest.”
		+
		+	==Many employees become dollar millionaires==
		+	[https://epaper.timesgroup.com/Olive/ODN/TimesOfIndia/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=TOIDEL%2F2018%2F05%2F10&entity=Ar02813&sk=EAF2EC8F&mode=text May 10, 2018: ''The Times of India'']
		+
		+
		+	Walmart’s buyout of Flipkart will make a host of former and current employees with shares in the latter rich, and quite a few will become dollar millionaires. Some 3,000 or more employees, current and former, are said to be holding shares. The company has a total strength of about 10,000.
		+
		+	At the employee town hall on Wednesday, there was a big cheer when Flipkart co-founder and group CEO Binny Bansal announced a 100% buyback of vested ESOPs (employee stock options. Sources told TOI that the buyback could be at around $150 (Rs 10,000) a share.
		+
		+	Among those turning dollar millionaires are said to be Sameer Nigam, CEO and founder of PhonePe, the payment arm of Flipkart, Amod Malviya, former chief technology officer, Sujeet Kumar, former president of operations, Vaibform Udaan. Nagori started healthcare platform Curefit, together with Myntra founder Mukesh Bansal.
		+
		+	Maheswari started Udhyam Learning Founhav Gupta, former business finance chief, Mekin Maheswari, former chief people officer, Ankit Nagori, former chief business officer, and Ananth Narayanan, CEO of Myntra and Jabong.
		+
		+	Malviya, Kumar and Gupta went on to found trading platdation, which works on developing entrepreneurial mindsets amongst youth from difficult backgrounds.
		+
		+	Flipkart was quite liberal in granting stock options to employees. But it would still not be able to rival Infosys, which is said to have created 20,000 rupee-millionaires and 500 dollar-millionaires in the 1990s and 2000s.
		+
		+	“Infosys grew organically, taking in less capital and creating sustainable cash flows. Flipkart has consumed huge amount of capital, which has gone into building the business and funding losses. But they need to be congratulated for creating value,” T V Mohandas Pai, former board member at Infosys, said.

	=Founders: Sachin Bansal & Binny Bansal=		=Founders: Sachin Bansal & Binny Bansal=

@@ Line 165: / Line 165: @@
 • Softbank Vision Fund which has invested in Flipkart will become one of the largest shareholders of the company
-==2007- April 2018==
+==2007- April 2018, some brief highlights==
 [https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/from-2bhk-to-8-3-lakh-sq-feet-the-flipkart-story-so-far/articleshow/64091637.cms  May 9, 2018: ''The Times of India'']
@@ Line 193: / Line 193: @@
 * Sachin was Flipkart CEO for nine years. In 2016, Binny Bansal took over as CEO as Sachin became executive chairman.
-* Last year, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, previously an executive in Flipkart investor Tiger Global, took over as Flipkart CEO. Binny Bansal became CEO of the whole group, which includes fashion portals Myntra-Jabong, payments unit PhonePe and logistics firm Ekart.
+* In 2017, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, previously an executive in Flipkart investor Tiger Global, took over as Flipkart CEO. Binny Bansal became CEO of the whole group, which includes fashion portals Myntra-Jabong, payments unit PhonePe and logistics firm Ekart.
 * Flipkart bought online apparel retailer Myntra in a deal pegged by sources at about $300 million in 2014, and another fashion retailer Jabong for $70 million in 2016.
@@ Line 201: / Line 201: @@
 * Japan's SoftBank is currently the largest investor in Flipkart with a 23-24 per cent stake, along with early backer South African media and internet giant Naspers, which holds 13 per cent. Other investors include New York-based hedge fund Tiger Global, US private-equity firm Accel Partners, China's Tencent Holdings Ltd, eBay Inc and Microsoft Corp.
 * In terms of financial statistics, Flipkart Group's consolidated loss attributable to owners of the company in fiscal 2017 widened to Rs 8,770 crore, from Rs 5,216 crore a year earlier. Consolidated revenue jumped 29 per cent to Rs 19,855 crore in fiscal 2017.
-−
 ==2008-14==