Flipkart Sends Revised Offer To Buy Snapdeal?:- According to sources, online retailing major, Flipkart to buy smaller rival, Snapdeal is believed to have sent a revised offer of USD 900-950 million.
Two people privy to the development said for buying Snapdeal’s online market place and Unicommerce, the Bengaluru-based firm has offered to pay the said amount. In 2015, Snapdeal, in 2015, had acquired an e-commerce management software and fulfilment solution provider, Unicommerce.
However, the sources did not wish to be identified, as the deal is still under discussion and yet to be finalized. One of the persons said, the board of Snapdeal (run by Jasper Infotech) will now meet to consider the offer and is most likely to accept it. The person even added that, the final amount will be subject to minor adjustments for cash and equivalent assets.
A takeover offer of USD 800-850 million (around Rs 5,500 crore) has already been rejected by the Snapdeal’s board from Flipkart. And the two parties will negotiate a sale and purchase agreement (SPA), if in case; the Snapdeal Board accepts the new offer from Flipkart.
However, before the deal closes it will still be a few weeks, said the other person. The two firms did not respond to emailed queries.
In addition, separate deals for Freecharge (mobile payments unit) and Vulcan Express (logistics business) are also being negotiated by Snapdeal, which are likely to be closed in the coming weeks. After the completion of the deal, the sale of Snapdeal could also see SoftBank making an equity infusion in Tiger Global-backed Flipkart.
There have been reports that another suitor, Infibeam, is in the race to acquire Snapdeal, even though the Ahmedabad- based company has termed it “purely speculative”. For the past few months, SoftBank, Snapdeal’s largest investor, has been proactively mediating the sale. The board of Snapdeal also has representation from its founders (Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal), Nexus Venture Partners and Kalaari Capital. If the deal is cracked between the two major firms, it would mark the biggest acquisition in the Indian e-commerce space.
One of the leading contenders in the Indian e-tailing segment, Snapdeal has seen its fortunes failing amid strong competition from Amazon and Flipkart. The assessments of Snapdeal have also dropped from about USD 6.5 billion in February 2016.
SoftBank has already written off over USD one billion on valuation of its investment in Snapdeal.
SUPRAJA
