After much speculation – and a fair amount of “will they, won’t they” – it looks like the deal is done: Walmart will be the majority owner of Indian eCommerce up-and-comer Flipkart, with a 77 percent stake.
All it will cost them is a cool $16 billion.
The news broke early Wednesday – possibly a bit earlier than either company would have preferred, as SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son accidentally let the cat out of the bag during his firm’s earnings presentation.
“Walmart is purchasing Flipkart,” Son said in the presentation (he spoke in Japanese with a real-time translation provided by a SoftBank representative). “Last night there was the official announcement.”
