As Flipkart continues to gear up for what will likely be a protracted fight with Amazon.com, it seems to have gotten some good news. Rival marketplace Snapdeal won’t be a rival much longer — according to interior sources (two of them, according to Reuters), its board has approved Flipkart’s revised takeover offer of $950 million.
Jasper Infotech’s board (which runs Snapdeal) has said yes — now the deal must pass muster with Snapdeal’s shareholders.
As mobile access in India continues to skyrocket, its eCommerce marketplace (with the billion or so shoppers living in India) has become the home of an intense battle between American giant Amazon and hometown hero Flipkart for local digital commerce dominance. A 2016 report from accounting firm EY noted that eCommerce found a growth rate of over 50 percent in the last five years in India’s eCommerce sector. Even more remarkable — that rate is expected to hold up such that by 2020 India will be clocking in with $35 billion in eCommerce sales annually.
Snapdeal’s board also rejected a $700 million share-swap offer by Infibeam (another eCommerce player) as too low.
Axis Bank, on the other hand, is rumored to be the leading player in the mix to acquire Snapdeal’s digital payments unit FreeCharge for $60 million.
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