Flipkart will become Walmart today: Is that really good news for India?

The sale of Flipkart is not just the sale of one company. It is the beginning of a new tomorrow. It is just that one cannot be sure whether that tomorrow will be better for India than today

1522839175-1958

When Carl Douglas McMillon, president and chief executive officer of Walmart Inc, arrives at the Embassy Tech Village headquarters of Flipkart in Bengaluru later on Wednesday to acquire India’s first-to-a-billion-dollars-startup, he will be accompanied by Walmart International’s Judith McKenna and CEO (commerce) Marc Lore. It will be a triumphal return to India for the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer which will be partnering Google’s parent Alphabet Inc in a deal estimated at $18-20 billion enterprise value – Walmart will own about 60 per cent stake, and Alphabet will get to own about 15 per cent of the online market place.

The passage of the past five years has obviously dulled memories. All recent media reports seem to have conveniently glossed over the history of Walmart’s previous foray into India, in partnership with Sunil Mittal’s Bharti group. Walmart in 2012 launched a global review of corruption after a New York Times report on bribery at the company’s Mexico operations. The review by its lawyers flagged India among the countries with the highest corruption risk. The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act forbids American firms from paying bribes. Almost on cue, in November that year, Bharti Walmart suspended a number of employees, including the chief financial officer, as part of an internal investigation into bribery allegations in the Indian operation. By June 2013, Raj Jain, the CEO of the India operations, quit after six years at the helm of the company. It did not take much time thereafter for the Walmart-Bharti JV to fall apart.

One hopes that this time around Walmart has done enough due diligence before committing to the deal. One hopes that someone has told Carl Douglas McMillon (Doug to friends) that when Flipkart-owned Myntra acquired fashion e-tailer Jabong from the troubled Rocket Internet, Jabong was facing a huge number of corporate governance issues. Hope Doug has made sure that there are no troublesome skeletons from the past that might come in the way of US laws that Walmart likes to be governed and guided by, because of Jabong’s past.

Read our full coverage on → walmart flipkart deal

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CBSE 10th result 2018 to be out tomorrow at 4pm on cbse.nic.in; updates

Image
CBSE 10th result 2018 will be declared on May 29, Central Board of Secondary Education confirmed. Check for CBSE Results updates on Business Standard CBSE 10th Result 2018 will be declared on Tuesday at 4pm.  The Central Board of Secondary Education  (CBSE) today announced that CBSE Class 10 result 2018 will be declared tomorrow. Over 16 lakh students appeared for Class 10 exams this year. CBSE will release CBSE 10th result 2018 on its official website  http://cbse.nic.in  or  http://cbseresults.nic.in . "Results of CBSE Class 10 examinations for 2017-18 to be declared by 4 pm on 29th of May, 2018," tweeted Union Education Secretary Anil Swarup. The  CBSE Class 10  exams were marred by controversy in 2018 with question paper leaks being reported from Delhi-NCR, Haryana and Jharkhand of Class 10 mathematics paper, but the HRD ministry had decided against conducting a re-examination in the "interest of students". This was the first batch to appear fo
Read more

Xiaomi Redmi S2 leak shows Redmi Note 5 Pro-inspired design: Details here

Image
The India-bound budget-centric smartphone is reported to sport dual rear cameras and feature face-unlock mechanism. Here are all the details you need to have for the upcoming Xiaomi smartphone Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi is closely working on a new Redmi device that is also expected to make its way to India. Touted as the  Redmi S2 , the budget-centric smartphone is reported to sport dual rear cameras and feature the face-unlock mechanism, according to a report by online technology-based forum XDA-developers. Now, the phone's purported image renders, shared by a Czech-based online publication SvetAndroida, show Redmi S2's front and back views. Based on renders, the phone would sport a tall 18:9 aspect ratio screen on the front and dual cameras on the back, along with a fingerprint scanner. The phone’s back seems identical to the Redmi Note 5 Pro, which was launched in India on February 14. However, the dual antenna lines on top and bottom have a differe
Read more

Restructuring: Tata Motors rolls out VRS, moves to a flat five-level hierarchy

Image
So far, less than 500 executives have been offered VRS, which roughly includes one year's salary Tata Motors, India’s largest automobile maker, has started rolling out a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for its employees as part of its organisational restructuring exercise. This is part of a human resources (HR) restructuring drive that is expected to transform the organisation into a much leaner company with a flat hierarchical structure. The new structure will be in place from April 1. So far, less than 500 executives have been offered VRS, which roughly includes one year’s salary, among other benefits, sources said. The company, however, did not confirm the details of the VRS package or how many were offered VRS. A company spokesperson said: “ Tata Motors  confirms that as part of the ongoing organisation effectiveness project, where we have already finalised the top two levels of our management structure, a proposal on VRS package has been presented and approved by
Read more