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Flipkart Sell 75% stake to Walmart for $15 Billion

4May By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Flipkart Sell 75% stake to Walmart for $15 Billion

Flipkart, the Indian e-commerce giant came to terms with American brick-and-mortar mammoth, Walmart, to sell an equity stake of about 75% for $15 billion, according to a report from Bloomberg which cited anonymous sources. SoftBank, the Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company that holds 20% stake in the e-commerce business agreed to sell its shares of the company to the American firm. Bloomberg added that Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc is also participating alongside Walmart in this deal. Terms are still being negotiated and the deal can even fall apart at any moment, Bloomberg reported. However, the deal is expected to close within the next 10 days. None of the companies agreed to comment on the matter. Earlier this week, Indian TV channel CNBC-TV18 reported ...

Amazon Invests Rs 144 Crore in Bangalore based E-Lending firm

24Apr By Lavina TolaniNo Comments

FUNDING

Amazon Invests Rs 144 Crore in Bangalore based E-Lending firm

Indian e-commerce major, Amazon has invested Rs. 144 crore( $22 million) in Capital Float, a platform for lending to small & medium enterprises (SME's). This is Amazon's third investment in financial landscape after BankBazaar and Qwikcilver Solutions. Founded in 2013 by Sashank Rishyasringa and Gaurav Hinduja, alumni from Standford University, Capital Floats raised funding round which was a part of Series C exercise raised by the company last year. The company had also raised $45 million i.e nearly Rs. 299 crore in last year in August and now will be utilizing the money to promote innovations and build proprietary underwriting algorithms. Capital Float has 20% of its customer base from e-commerce sellers and vendors thus making Amazon be one of its biggest customers. This ...

Jeff Bezos backed Cancer Startup to Raise $1 Billion Ahead of IPO

19Apr By Lavina TolaniNo Comments

FUNDING

Jeff Bezos backed Cancer Startup to Raise $1 Billion Ahead of IPO

Grail Inc, the cancer-detection startup backed by two world's wealthiest men is planning to raise $1 billion to push growth much ahead of its Initial Public Offering in Hong Kong. The very first product that will focus on screening test for nasopharyngeal cancer will be launched this year informed Grail Incorporation.Nasopharyngeal cancer is a type of cancer prevalent in Southeast Asia and southern China The company which is backed by Amazon Incorporation founder Jeff Bezos and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is working on advisers on the new round that is ongoing a preliminary phase and might change in timings and date, said two people involved with the matter. Charlotte Arnold, a spokeswoman for Menlo Park at Grail said that the company doesn’t comment on market speculation or i...

Amazon Launches a “Lite” Web Browser App for India

18Apr By Lavina TolaniNo Comments

Tech

Amazon Launches a “Lite” Web Browser App for India

E-commerce giant, Amazon has come up with a lite web browser app for India to attract emerging markets which is claimed to be "lighter than competition". Called "Internet: fast, lite and private", the app has been specifically designed to consume less space on devices and comes under 2 MB in size. The app is visible at Google play store but currently downloadable only in selected smartphone brands in India. The app will offer a private user experience without seeking additional permissions or collect private data like other browsers. Moreover, it also offers inbuilt news and updates on the home page with a private data tab that does not track user's history at the end of a user session. The app is compatible for download for devices running on Android 5.0 Marshmallow and above. Th...

$20 Billion Indian E-commerce Acquisition Deal Reaches Final Stage

13Apr By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

News

$20 Billion Indian E-commerce Acquisition Deal Reaches Final Stage

Walmart, the American retail guru is keen to buy stakes in Indian e-commerce company, Flipkart and the rumors circulating suggest that the Indian firm would boast a valuation of $20 billion once the deal is completed. Anonymous sources close to the company suggested that Walmart is set to buy out the shares of Flipkart and the stakes of its investors as well. The deal is yet to reach a conclusion and the details are still in negotiations. The deal will most probably be paid in tranches and will include the purchase of primary and secondary shares, said one of the sources. Flipkart’s early investors such as Tiger Global look will most likely leave the company following the deal. Flipkart raised several funds last year, notably from eBay, Tencent Holdings and Microsoft Corp but the ...

This is How Amazon Avoids Tax in America

7Apr By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

ANALYSIS

This is How Amazon Avoids Tax in America

Last week, President Donald Trump directed attacks on Amazon in a tweet stating his disappointment that the e-commerce giant does not pay sufficient taxes. Since 2015, Donald Trump has expressed his contempt towards Amazon and its CEO Jeff Bezos around a dozen times on the micro-blogging site. Trump’s disdain towards the e-commerce giant is often attributed to the negative articles written against the US President in ‘The Washington Post’, which is owned by CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos. For this reason, many individuals wonder whether the statements made by the US President are accurate or just “impulsive.” In fact, while it is quite hard to believe, Amazon does indeed pay almost no tax at all in the US. It is very surprising that Amazon lawfully avoided all sorts of corporate taxes despit...

U.S President Lashes Out at Amazon for paying “No-Taxes”

30Mar By Lavina TolaniNo Comments

USA

U.S President Lashes Out at Amazon for paying “No-Taxes”

US President Donald Trump slammed American e-commerce and cloud based company "Amazon" for paying "no-taxes" to local and state government and is reportedly seeking for more stringent regulations on the Seattle-based company, which is currently a global name all over the world, including India. In his tweet posted on Thursday morning, Trump directed his aim over Amazon stating how the company plays immense role on people's everyday's life, where they shop and how the company garners taxes from sales and delivers packages to its customers. I have stated my concerns long before the elections. Unlike other company, Amazon pays very little or absolutely no taxes to local and state government.Moreover, it uses country's postal system as their delivery boy(causing tremendous loss to the US) ...

23Mar By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

News

Shopclues Sacked 45-50 Employees

It has been announced that Shopclues fired 45-50 employees from different domains. A company spokesperson confirmed the layoffs but pointed out that they were made according to the individuals’ work performance, which according to the firm “has impacted less than 4% of the company’s overall workforce.” "Unfortunate as it might be, the rigors of a merit-based system requires that we keep the bar high on individual performance. As we wrap up the review cycle for FY 2018, this decision has impacted less than 4% of the total workforce," the company spokesperson said. The firm currently employs between 1,150-1,200 individuals. The layoffs come at a time when Shopclues is losing long strides to India’s two biggest e-commerce companies – Flipkart and Amazon. Snapdeal is also changing ...

Amazon becomes the 2nd most valuable company in the world

21Mar By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

News

Amazon becomes the 2nd most valuable company in the world

Amazon just took Alphabet’s 2nd place in the standings of most valuable company in the world while Apple remains topper of the list boasting a valuation of $889 billion. The e-commerce giant rose by 2.7 percent on Tuesday and thus lifted its stock market value to $768 billion and $1,586.51 per share. Parent company of Google, Alphabet fell by 0.4 percent and now possesses a valuation of $764.5 billion additionally, since bagging an all-time high of 1,197 per share on Jan 29, their stock value fell by 8.5%. This achievement comes a few weeks after Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos came first in Forbes annual billionaires list with a total wealth of $112 billion and thereby becoming the first American possessing more than $100 billion. All U.S tech mega-giants have competed vigor...

Amazon Releases Prime Video Figures for the First Time

17Mar By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

News

Amazon Releases Prime Video Figures for the First Time

Amazon’s best television shows attracted over 5 million people worldwide to its Prime shopping club by start of 2017, according to the company releases and reveal for the very first time how the e-commerce retailer fares in the online streaming industry. The documents also reveal that the American audience totals 26 million customers for all video programming on Prime, which includes movies and TV shows licensed by other companies. This is the first time that Amazon are releasing their audience figures and it covers the period of late 2014 and early 2017. The released documents reveal the metrics of 19 shows exclusively streamed on Amazon. It includes their cost, their viewership and the number of people they help attract to Prime. These shows, known as Prime Originals account for ab...

15Mar By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

News

Walmart Planning Flipkart Takeover

Walmart Stores Inc. is set to become Flipkart’s largest shareholder as negotiations are being finalized. Walmart could buy around 20-26% stakes in the Indian company and improve its shareholding rights to 51% in tranches, according to reports. India’s biggest online retail company, Flipkart is luring the world’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer in its ranks before yet another face-off against American retailer Amazon in the India e-commerce market. The American retail giant might invest $10-12 billion for the entire stake purchase in a deal that will include the acquisition of shares owned by existing investors with the likes of Softbank, the Japanese telecom and internet giant, according to two anonymous sources close to the company. “The primary investment will be between $1-2 Bn,...

Why Uber CEO is not Worried about its Losses?

16Feb By RishabhNo Comments

Entrepreneurs Talk

Why Uber CEO is not Worried about its Losses?

Speaking at a conference held in San Francisco on Monday, the cab aggregator giant Uber Technologies chief executive officer Dara Khosrowshahi said that "we can turn the knobs to get this business even on a full basis profitable." Uber's last year losses were $4.5 billion on net revenue of $7.5 billion, but this is the last thought that Uber CEO is worried about right now. He says,"(forcing the business to be profitable)would sacrifice growth and sacrifice innovation.” Dara said that it's Uber's commitment to "developing" markets that are dragging its business down, but he views that as an "optional investment". He however, thinks that it is the "right thing to do," indicating that company will not stop exploring options and investing in Asia. Ultimately, Uber's business is getting p...