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Former SoftBank COO Nikesh Arora Appointed as the CEO of Palo Alto

2Jun By Gauri SinghNo Comments

News

Former SoftBank COO Nikesh Arora Appointed as the CEO of Palo Alto

Nikesh Arora, an Indian businessman who was the president and COO of SoftBank Group, has now been appointed as the CEO and chairman of 'Palo Alto Networks', the global cybersecurity leader. Arora has replaced Mark McLaughlin who has been the head for nearly seven years and has played a major role in its difficult stage of growth. The past CEO will now become the board's vice chairman. He said he wanted to step down as CEO so that he could spend more time with his family. McLaughlin, in this context, expressed,"Over the course of several quarters, I have been discussing succession planning with the Board and I couldn't be more pleased that we have found a leader in Nikesh." Nikesh Arora has worked with SoftBank as well as with Google. He served at SoftBank from 2014 until 2016, when he...

Income Tax Department Begins Flipkart-Walmart Deal Audit

31May By Lavina TolaniNo Comments

News

Income Tax Department Begins Flipkart-Walmart Deal Audit

The biggest acquisition in e-commerce that shook up the world-the Flipkart-Walmart is now being examined by the Income Tax departments in India where the tax body has sent queries to Flipkart-Walmart regarding the $16 Bn worth deal. While Flipkart has responded to the details of the acquisition, Walmart's explanation is still awaited. The acquisition deal was sealed earlier on 9 May where Walmart bought 77% stake in Flipkart for a whopping $16 billion. Prior to the official deal announcement, Income tax authorities had asked Flipkart to furnish the details of the transaction to examine the tax implications of the transaction for the government. It is important to note that transaction details are crucial for the income tax department to ascertain tax liability since many investors...

Softbank Finally Agrees to Pay $600 Million to Indian Government, Sold Flipkart Stakes to Walmart

22May By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

BUSINESS

Softbank Finally Agrees to Pay $600 Million to Indian Government, Sold Flipkart Stakes to Walmart

Softbank is finally putting an end to the months of speculations over his future with Flipkart post the Walmart acquisition deal. The Japanese conglomerate has now agreed to sell its 23.6% stake in Indian e-commerce major Flipkart to its new owners, Walmart for around $4 Bn. Several reports varied over the future of Masayoshi Son’s investment firm in the e-commerce giant despite the billionaire CEO unintentionally confirming the acquisition deal on May 9. In fact, the Japan-based company was still analyzing and examining the option of whether or not staying in Flipkart. The reason for this indecision was mainly motivated by the large amount of tax that Softbank would be subject to for leaving a company in such a short term. Softbank acquired 23.6% stakes in Flipkart last year for an ...

Paytm Mall Introduces No-cost EMI and Other Services to Expand E-commerce Penetration

21May By Lavina TolaniNo Comments

News

Paytm Mall Introduces No-cost EMI and Other Services to Expand E-commerce Penetration

Paytm Mall, The digital arm of e-commerce giant company Paytm has announced its plans to introduce an umbrella of new services such as no cost EMI, Extended Warranty on products, Device Insurance and Easy Exchange across its online platform as well as offline partner stores. Interestingly, the e-commerce arm of Paytm which received $450 million in funding from Alibaba and SoftBank is disbursing no-cost EMIs price Rs 1,000 crore throughout two million merchandise by the top of the subsequent quarter. In addition, it is partnering with 13 banks and monetary establishments for this transfer. Now with new additions to its portfolio, the company is looking forward to driving 25 % progress in gross income for its companion retail shops and achieve a dominating market share in smartphones a...

SoftBank Is In Talks With Zomato Over A Possible Investment

17May By Lavina TolaniNo Comments

BUSINESS

SoftBank Is In Talks With Zomato Over A Possible Investment

The Japanese Internet Conglomerate, SoftBank Group Corp is reportedly in talks over a possible investment in food delivery and online restaurant company Zomato as told by sources familiar with the matter. The possibility of Softbank's future investment in Zomato has been speculating in the market since six months back when the Japanese giant first held conversations exploring a possible funding of up to $200-250 million in Bengaluru-based Swiggy. "SoftBank which has already backed Flipkart now eyes to make a niche for itself in the food delivery market said one of the sources. The development comes as SoftBank is reportedly yet to decide on selling its more than 20% stake in Flipkart to US retailer Walmart. The Report says that SoftBank is currently discussing business metrics across...

Softbank Will Launch New Vision Fund in “Near Future”

16May By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

News

Softbank Will Launch New Vision Fund in “Near Future”

Masayoshi Son, founder of SoftBank Group Corp, the world’s largest private equity fund, announced that he was keen to set up a second Vision Fund in the near future, despite still having capital remaining in its $100 Bn Vision Fund of May 2017. In a conference held in Tokyo, the business mogul stated that capital will be raised from existing institutional investors for this new fund. Although Son said that the fund will launch in the “near future”, he did however, specify that it won’t be before the coming six months. “Vision Fund 2 will definitely come,” said Masayoshi Son at the conference, although the actual size of the fund has been kept confidential. The Vision Fund I is currently controlled by Softbank Group founder and CEO Masayoshi Son and designated CEO of Softbank Visio...

Food Delivery Startup Swiggy Is Eyeing to Raise $250 Mn

15May By Lavina TolaniNo Comments

News

Food Delivery Startup Swiggy Is Eyeing to Raise $250 Mn

Online Food Delivery Startup Swiggy is eyeing to raise $250 million instead of $150-200 Mn as speculated earlier. This development has come into play at a time when the Bengaluru headquartered company is seeing intense investor interest that would help the firm to amp up its valuation and raise more money. Major Technology giants such as Japanese Agglomerate SoftBank, Chinese Firm Tencent, DST Global and Alibaba are currently in talks with Swiggy though, an official confirmation has not emerged until now. Earlier in February this year, the Food Startup had earlier raised a $100 (Rs 640 crore) million in a Series F round, one of its largest round so far led by Naspers. According to some sources reported by Techcircle, a person familiar with the matter said, "The only factor which i...

This is Why SoftBank is Reluctant to Sell its 22 % Flipkart Stake

15May By Lavina TolaniNo Comments

News

This is Why SoftBank is Reluctant to Sell its 22 % Flipkart Stake

Post mega Flipkart-Walmart Acquisition, the e-commerce world has been buzzing with speculations all around as to how the mammoth deal will shape the coming scenario. Now, there is a new dimension that has come into play regarding SoftBank unwilling to sell its stakes to Flipkart. If SoftBank was to sell its 22.3% stake in Flipkart Singapore to Walmart now or anytime before August 2019, it may have to hand over a massive $600 million to the Indian taxman out of its profit of $1.5 billion. Just 9 months ago in August 2017, the Japanese multinational conglomerate, SoftBank had announced its investment of $2.5 billion in Flipkart Singapore via SVF Holdings. Understanding the Taxation Dynamics Right after the official announcement, more than 500 funds were set up...

Walmart Planning to Launch Flipkart’s IPO in Next 4 years

13May By AnkitaNo Comments

News

Walmart Planning to Launch Flipkart’s IPO in Next 4 years

US retail giant Walmart Inc mentioned in its report to US security exchange that they may come up with an initial public offer (IPO) of Flipkart as early as four years. Walmart in its report said IPO will be at "a valuation no less than that paid by Walmart under the share issuance agreement, subject to the satisfaction of certain other conditions regarding such offering (the IPO)". Which means Walmart can issue the shares of Flipkart at the valuation of $16 billion that it paid to other investors of Flipkart to acquire the 77% shares of Flipkart. Also, the report added, "Shareholders agreement would expire upon the consummation of the IPO, whether initiated by the board or the minority stockholders". "Pursuant to a Registration Rights Agreement to be entered into concurrently wi...

SoftBank Undecided on Selling its 22% Stake in Flipkart

11May By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

News

SoftBank Undecided on Selling its 22% Stake in Flipkart

New Delhi: SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son yet not decided to sell its 20-22% stake in Flipkart to Walmart Inc., sources close to the company told to Pixr8 News. After seeing the valuation of the company, Masayoshi Son is in dilemma and will take a call in the next 7-10 days on whether to exit India’s biggest online retailer or stay invested for a long time. If SoftBank decides not to sell its stake then Walmart left with about 55% stake of Flipkart. All other significant shareholders like Naspers, venture fund Accel Partners and eBay had confirmed selling their shares in Flipkart to Walmart. Though on Wednesday, Us retail giant Walmart Inc has announced that it will pay about $16 billion to buy 77% stake in Flipkart. A statement issued by Walmart identified Flipkart co-founder Binny B...

Now Its Official! Walmart Acquires 77% of Flipkart for $16 Billion

9May By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Now Its Official! Walmart Acquires 77% of Flipkart for $16 Billion

Walmart. Inc has officially acquired Flipkart for $16 billion in a deal that soared the valuation of Indian e-commerce platform to over $20 billion, making it the biggest e-commerce acquisition ever globally. The brick-and-mortar company acquired 77% of the Indian e-tail business. The news was also confirmed by previous Flipkart investor, Softbank CEO, Masayoshi Son who also stated that the Japanese conglomerate sold out the 20% stakes it bought last year for $2.6 Bn at $4 Bn, therefore making a 60% profit on its initial investment. Out of the 50 existing investors in Flipkart, only Tiger Global Management and Tencent are expected to prolong their association with the e-commerce giant. This is also the first time that a US company bought out an entire online platform in India, driven...

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 ...