Walmart Inc. is in the final lap of discussions to buy a third of Indian e-commerce portal Flipkart India Pvt. Ltd. for about $7 billion, in a bid to rival Amazon.com Inc.'s growing presence in the country, Bloomberg News reported March 16, citing people familiar with the matter.
The decision regarding the possible deal could come by the end of March, as talks have reached a "critical stage," the report added.
The U.S. big-box retailer reportedly would buy stakes from Flipkart investors Tiger Global Management LLC and Japan-based SoftBank Group Corp. Flipkart, which would be valued at about $20 billion after the deal, could also issue new shares. Flipkart's valuation and the size of Walmart's stake are preliminary and may change, and the deal still may not go through, the report said. SoftBank does not want to give up "too much" of its stake in Flipkart, while Tiger Global plans to hold at least a small stake in Flipkart after the deal, the report said.
Walmart and Flipkart, which reportedly could also launch a chain of retail stores in India as part of the collaboration, declined to comment to Bloomberg News for the report.
