Walmart considers stake in Indian e-commerce firm, report

Watch out Amazon. Walmart (NYSE:WMT) is reportedly in talks to buy more than 40% of India’s largest e-commerce firm, FlipKart, a direct competitor to Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The deal, which a Walmart spokesman declined to comment about to FOX Business, would be one of the company’s biggest overseas deals. According to Reuters, the retailer is looking into buying new and existing shares in FlipKart, with due diligence expected to begin as early as next week. FlipKart, headquartered in Bengaluru, India, was founded in 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, who both worked for Amazon.com but left to create their own knockoff of the company in India. FlipKart, just like Amazon, started by selling books online but has since morphed into an all-in-one retailer, selling clothes, personal care items and furniture. In 2017, FlipKart reported revenue of $3.1 billion but was valued at $7.9 billion, way below its $11.6 billion valuation earlier in the year, according to India-based mutual fund investor Valic. Last November, Japan’s Softbank Group bought an undisclosed number of shares of the company for $2.5 billion, which brought down the company’s valuation. Other investors in FlipKart include U.S. hedge fund Tiger Global Management, China's Tencent Holdings, online marketplace eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) and software giant Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). A spokesperson for FlipKart did not immediately respond to FOX Business’ request for comment on the talks.