In a major announcement, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has said it will accept Amazon’s proposal to fully acquire Prione Business Services.
Prione, a technology provider that offers small businesses in India’s growing digital economy a suite of services, is also the owner of Cloudtail, one of the biggest and most profitable retailers on Amazon India, reported Techcrunch.
With the go-ahead now in place, Amazon will acquire the entire stake of Narayana Murthy-backed Catamaran Ventures in the company. The company was originally established in 2014 as a joint venture between Amazon and Catamaran.
“Commission approves acquisition of Prione Business Services Private Limited by Amazon Asia-Pacific Resources Private Limited,” said CCI in a tweet on Wednesday.
Senior Amazon India executives are expected to hold a meeting on the matter this week, according to the sources.
Amazon announced its plans to take full control of Prione Business Services in December of 2021, subject to the requisite regulatory approvals. On August 09, 2021, the partners had announced their decision to not continue the JV beyond the end of its current term in May 2022.
Under India’s current regulations it remains unclear whether Cloudtail will be able to continue its operations as a seller on Amazon’s marketplace, as India prohibits foreign direct investment (FDI) in inventory-based models for e-commerce and permits firms such as Amazon India and Flipkart to work only as marketplaces for other businesses.
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