Snapdeal board accepts $900m-$950m revised buyout offer from Flipkart: report

Snapdeal co-founder and CEO Kunal Bahl. Photo credit: Snapdeal.

Indian ecommerce company Snapdeal has accepted a revised offer of US$900 million to US$950 million for a takeover by its arch rival Flipkart, reports Reuters, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. The Snapdeal board has cleared the deal, but it will need approval by shareholders.

Snapdeal had earlier rejected an offer of US$700 million to US$750 million after Flipkart completed its due diligence. The deal also ran into a snag when Snapdeal’s smaller investors objected to special payouts for the founders of the beleaguered company, who had protracted negotiations on the sale. At its peak in the beginning of 2016, Snapdeal was valued at over US$6 billion.

See: The real story behind the sale of Snapdeal to Flipkart

Japanese giant SoftBank is the largest stakeholder in Snapdeal with an investment of around US$900 million for a 33 percent stake in the company. Early investors Kalaari Capital and Nexus Venture Partners are also on the board, along with the founders, Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal.

If the deal that SoftBank has been pushing for months finally goes through, it will create a triangular fight for the fast-growing Indian ecommerce market between Alibaba-backed Paytm, Tencent-backed Flipkart, and Amazon, with Shopclues being an outlier in tier-2 cities.

Tech in Asia has reached out to Snapdeal and Flipkart for comment.