The Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart has acquired the Indian arm of eBay and the announcement regarding this development was made by Flipkart on Twitter. Through its latest funding round from Tencent, eBay and Microsoft, the Indian firm has raised $1.4 billion and acquisition of eBay India was a part of the deal.
The press release states,
“In exchange for an equity stake in Flipkart, eBay is making a cash investment in and selling its eBay.in business to Flipkart. eBay.in will continue to operate as an independent entity as a part of Flipkart. Flipkart and eBay have also signed an exclusive cross-border trade agreement.”
The cash investment that eBay is making is said to be of $500 million. Sachin and Binny, the founders of Flipkart, said this during the press statement,
“We are delighted that Tencent, eBay and Microsoft — all innovation powerhouses — have chosen to partner with us on their India journey. We have chosen these partners based on their long histories of pioneering industries, and the unique expertise and insights each of them bring to Flipkart. This deal reaffirms our resolve to hasten the transformation of commerce in India through technology.”
This acquisition of eBay India will provide an opportunity to Indian sellers to sell their products globally while the Indian customers of Flipkart will be able to buy from global options available.
Tencent and Microsoft have joined as the strategic investors and Flipkart can get benefit from their expertise, as it is planning to strengthen its position in India.
It is also reported that very soon, Flipkart will acquire Snapdeal, India’s third largest e-commerce company, for a whopping amount of $950 million. Earlier also, Flipkart’s fashion arm Myntra acquired Jabong which gave it 15 million active users monthly.
Flipkart has been on a mission to raise funds since last year, as it had talks with Alibaba and Walmart; however, those discussions didn’t yield any result.
Kalyan Krishnamurthy, the man who became the new CEO of Flipkart in June, 2016, used to work in eBay earlier.
We wish all the best to Flipkart!
