Walmart India fires around 50 executives as part of restructuring: Report

Mamata govt is not implementing central schemes as they do not help syndicates or involve cut money: PM

Latest News : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said a section of the youth was being misguided about the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and asserted that it would not take away anybody’s citizenship.

“We must all know that any person of any religion from any country of the world, theist or atheist, who believes in India and its Constitution, can apply for Indian citizenship through due process. There’s no problem in that,” he told the gathering at Belur Math.

The PM said the dispute that had arisen over CAA had made the world aware of persecution of religious minorities in Pakistan. “Our initiative to amend Citizenship Act has created a dispute. It is the result of our initiative that Pakistan will now have to answer why they have been persecuting minorities for the last 70 years. Human rights have been demolished in Pakistan,” he said, adding some people with political interests were spreading rumours about the new citizenship law.

A day after meeting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the PM attacked her, saying the state was unwilling to implement central schemes since these didn’t benefit ‘syndicates’ or involve ‘cut money’.

---

Updates on Upcoming Event → Budget 2020

Walmart Flipkart $16 bn Deal: All your important questions answered here

How big is the deal, who will benefit, who has opposed it, and what comes next? Business Standard answers key questions on the Walmart-Flipkart deal.

Companies News India : US retailer Walmart Inc said on Wednesday it will pay $16 billion for roughly 77 per cent stake in e-commerce firm Flipkart, as it competes with Amazon Inc in India, which is an important growth market.

With the deal done, Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal will be exiting the Bengaluru-based company. According to his Facebook post addressing Flipkart employees, Bansal plans to catch up on gaming and brush up his coding skills.

Here are some key things to know about the deal:

• How big is the deal in dollar terms?
  Walmart will pay $16 billion for a roughly 77 per cent stake in Flipkart. According to Reuters, Walmart has said that it plans to fund the Flipkart deal through a combination of newly-issued debt and cash on hand. The investment will also include $2 billion of new equity funding.
  This is the US retailer’s biggest deal ever.

Why is Walmart buying a majority stake in Flipkart?

• From Walmart Inc, $16 billion is a small price to pay as it aims to compete with global e-commerce giant Amazon, Karan Choudhury writes for Business Standard.
  With this deal, Walmart hopes to finally prop up a formidable opponent against the Jeff Bezos-run juggernaut. According to the report, Walmart hopes that Flipkart will help it understand the e-commerce business better and take on Amazon, not only in India but globally as well.

What does Flipkart get out of the Walmart deal?

• Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal said Walmart is the ideal partner for the next phase of Flipkart journey as he saw e-commerce having great potential to grow from its current status of being a relatively small part of retail in India.
  Walmart will also expand Flipkart’s online marketplace capabilities by bringing in a host of new products and private labels.

What happens to the Flipkart brand now?

• Walmart and Flipkart will remain separate brands, according to agency reports. Further, the Indian e-commerce company will have an independent board. However, the board will be revamped to give representation to the US firm.

Who will head Flipkart after the Walmart deal?

• Walmart’s Krish Iyer will be the CEO of the company, according to agency reports. The company will continue to be based out of Bengaluru.

What about Flipkart’s founders, are they staying onboard?

• Binny Bansal, who co-founded Flipkart with Sachin Bansal 11 years ago, will retain his 5.5 per cent stake in the company and will be chairman of the company’s board, according to news agencies.
• Sachin is exiting the Bengaluru-based company post the Walmart deal. According to his Facebook post, he plans to catch up on gaming and brush up his coding skills as he takes time off to finish few pending personal projects.

Read More on → Walmart Flipkart Deal

Story of Flipkart: From modest start to Walmart nuptial and everything in between

Flipkart has given India its big startup success story — the one which is likely to be quoted by starry-eyed entrepreneurs for years to come.

Companies News : From selling books online to striking a jaw-dropping USD 16 billion deal with the world’s largest retailer Walmart, all within 11 years, Flipkart has given India its big startup success story — the one which is likely to be quoted by starry-eyed entrepreneurs for years to come. Former employees of US e-commerce giant Amazon, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal had met in 2005 at IIT-Delhi. Flipkart was launched in October 2007.

The idea was simple. Consumers could shop online and get books delivered to their doorstep. Flipkart registered 20 shipments in the year of its debut. It wasn’t an easy road as Internet penetration was abysmally low and e-commerce, unheard of. Bricks and mortar retailers were not threatened and many dismissed e-tailing as a foreign concept saying that Indians want to touch and feel’ whatever they buy.

Today, Indian e-commerce industry is already close to USD 30 billion in size and analysts expect this to zoom to USD 200 billion by 2026. The growth of the sector was comfortably in sync with the meteoric rise of Flipkart.

From a modest two-bedroom apartment in Koramangala, the Bengaluru-headquartered company now has multiple offices across the country. A bulk of its operations are run out of a plush campus in the city that is spread over 1 lakh sq ft and houses 6,800 employees.

It was almost two years after starting the business that Flipkart got its first full-time employee in Ambur Iyyappa, who went on to become a millionaire, thanks to the ESOPs. The headcount was rapidly scaled to 150 that year.

In October the same year, Accel Partners came on board as an investor and pumped in USD 1 million. A few months later, US hedge fund Tiger Global bought into the vision and Flipkart received a funding of USD 10 million.

A number of funding rounds later, Flipkart raised USD 1.4 billion from Tencent, eBay and Microsoft, followed by USD 2.5 billion investment by SoftBank Vision Fund last year. The year 2010 was an important one for Flipkart with the company shipping among other things, electronics and mobile phones. This category now makes up for a significant portion of the sales for the online platform.

It was also the year when Flipkart pioneered ‘Cash on Delivery’ in India, which changed the course of online retail in the country as consumers now paid for items only after receiving them, adding a layer of comfort to online shopping. Flipkart launched its logistics unit, eKart to smoothen deliveries.

In 2016, Flipkart achieved the milestone of 100 million registered customers and saw Sachin and Binny earning a spot among TIME magazine’s list of 100 most influential people. The company made its first acquisition with WeRead and since then, it has acquired a number of companies including Letsbuy, FX Mart, fashion e-tail player Myntra and UPI-based payments startup PhonePe. It also bought a majority stake in companies like Jeeves and ngpay.

At the beginning of last year, Kalyan Krishnamurthy was named as the new CEO, moving Binny Bansal to the role of Group CEO. Reports suggested that Tiger Global wanted better control of the organisation and hence, the decision. Bansals’ e-commerce bet finally has paid off big time and set the 2018 M&A counters ringing with US retailer Walmart buying about 77 per cent stake in Flipkart for USD 16 billion.

→ Flipkart Walmart Deal , Walmart Flipkart Deal ←

Purchasing a gun in the US? Walmart just hiked the minimum age limit to 21

Walmart is removing items from its website that resemble assault-style rifles, including non-lethal airsoft guns and toys

 

International News : Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc said it will permanently stop selling assault-style rifles after the massacre at a Florida high school that has reopened a fierce debate over gun control in America.

The US retailer of camping supplies, sporting goods and guns will also stop selling high-capacity magazines and will not sell any guns to people under age 21, Dick’s chief executive, Ed Stack, said in an open letter on the company’s website.

Hours later, Walmart Inc, the largest US retailer, said it was raising the minimum age for the purchase of firearms and ammunition to 21 from 18. Walmart stopped selling assault-style firearms and accessories in 2015.

The announcements came the same day that classes resumed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people, mostly students, were killed two weeks ago in one of the deadliest US mass shootings.

The accused gunman, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, legally purchased a weapon at Dick’s in November, although not the type used in the shooting, Stack said. Cruz, a former student at Stoneman Douglas, is accused of using an AR-15 assault-style weapon to carry out the killing.

The massacre spurred a youth-led wave of protests, and state and national officials are considering whether to pass stricter gun control measures.

The powerful National Rifle Association traditionally opposes such curbs, citing the right to bear arms under the US Constitution’s Second Amendment.

Dick’s removed assault-style weapons from its Dick’s-branded stores after the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut that killed 20 first-graders and six adults but continued selling them through another retail brand. Wednesday’s move takes them out of its 35 Field & Stream outlets as well, Stack said, adding the measure would be permanent.

Some analysts said the 2012 decision did not hurt the retailer’s sales, likely giving company executives confidence to make Wednesday’s move.

Stack said he knew the company’s decision would upset some customers, but he cited the passionate response by the students and families in Parkland.

Minimum age to buy gun from Walmart

Walmart-Flipkart tie-up: Why the association is more likely than a stake sale

The world’s largest retailer, Walmart, which is in direct competition with Jeff Bezos-led e-commerce giant Amazon in the US, may be looking at India, the fastest-growing market, for the next round of business rivalry.

A news report on Tuesday said Walmart was in early talks to pick up a minority stake in Flipkart, which claims to be bigger than Amazon in India.

While neither Bentonville-headquartered Walmart nor Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal-founded Flipkart commented on the issue, a source said it may not make much sense for the American brick-and-mortar giant, with significant online ambition, to pick a minority stake in Flipkart at the valuation it commands

The Bengaluru-based company had past estimated its own value at over $15 billion last year, but many of its investors have marked down the worth since then. Even after the markdowns, which are theoretical, Flipkart is valued at $10-$11 billion.

“A minority stake in Flipkart will not give Walmart any substantial play in the online space, while paying a big price for it,” the source said, explaining why such a  Read Full Story

---

ABOUT THE TWO

• It may not make much sense for the American brick-and-mortar giant, with significant online ambition, to pick a minority stake in Flipkart at the valuation it commands, a source said
   
• The talks between the two could be for other strategic tie-ups, rather than a stake deal, another source said
   
• Many analysts have pointed out that there’s a reason for Walmart to gain traction in the online market in India
   
• Walmart has been in negotiations with several e-com firms, including Shopclues and Snapdeal, for presence across online platforms
   
• The biggest trigger is Alibaba finalising its direct India foray

---