Snapdeal today announced it has terminated strategic discussions on selling its stake to rival Flipkart. Snapdeal spokesperson said that they have been exploring synergies over the months and they have finally decided to part ways and continue an independent path terminating all strategic discussions. As reported the negotiations scheduled between the two on Monday was called off at a short notice. However Flipkart declined to confirm that its meeting with Snapdeal was cancelled and official admits that they could not meet further to take the deal forward.
Flipkart offered to buy Gurgaon-based company Snapdeal at a whopping price of $900-950 million the Snapdeal’s board decided to seek the permission of their investors which includes Ratan Tata and Azim Premji for exiting the business. Other major investors in Snapdeal include Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Temasek ,Foxconn and BlackRock.
Snapdeal declared that after selling few non-core assets, they are expecting to be self-sustainable. He also mentioned that they are looking forward for support of their employees, sellers and buyers in helping them create a commerce platform. They also mentioned that there is immense opportunity for e-commerce in India and the $200-billion market has been reached till now.
Bahl from Snapdeal mentioned that the deal was pretty complex to execute. He also mentioned that there cannot be be one successful model for e-commerce in India. There are multiple successful e-commerce businesses, but until there is strategy and clear path to success, there is a great company to built. Talking about Snapdeal 2.0 he said it would enable anyone to setup an online store and provide a wide range of products at great prices to consumers. Snapdeal has sold its mobile wallet FreeCharge to Axis Bank for Rs 385 crore. With many members reiterating that the company should continue in its independent capacity, Bahl made it clear that the decision has been made and there was no ambiguities about it.
