Bengaluru: Amazon.com Inc may make an offer to buy India’s home-grown e-commerce company Flipkart. However, the deal with Walmart has a better possibility, newspaper Mint reported on Wednesday, citing people who are familiar with the matter.
Any such deal with India’s global rival could spark monopoly concerns as Flipkart and Amazon dominate India’s e-commerce market, Reuter’s sources said refusing to get identified. Neither Flipkart and Walmart responded to requests to comment, nor the Jeff Bezos’ owned company.
It was reported in February that Walmart was in discussion to buy more than 40 percent of Flipkart. The deal may become a direct challenge to Amazon in India. Meanwhile, Amazon is investing $5 billion in India as it expands into online grocery delivery.
Founded by former Amazon employees Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal in 2007, Flipkart has remained a top rival to Amazon, controlling about 40 percent of India’s online retail market, ahead of Amazon. The duo, much like Bezos had first started to sell books online then started selling smartphones in flash sales.