The E-commerce giant Flipkart announced today that it has completed its merger with eBay India’s operations. Therefore, eBay.in will be a part of Flipkart Group. The Flipkart eBay India merger was announced in April when Flipkart raised $1.4 billion from global technology players eBay, Microsoft, and Tencent.
Reports suggest that eBay made a cash investment of $500 million and sold it’s eBay.in business to Flipkart to buy an equity stake in Flipkart. While eBay entered the Indian market long before Flipkart, Amazon and Alibaba, the company could not establish itself as a strong player, and this could be a way for eBay’s Indian operations to make further inroads in the competitive Indian e-commerce space.
The announcement comes a day after smaller rival Snapdeal said it was terminating all discussions of a potential merger. While Snapdeal did not name Flipkart, it had been widely reported that both were negotiating a merger for the last five months.
“Effective immediately, Flipkart will own and operate eBay.in, which will remain an independent entity as part of Flipkart,” Flipkart said in a statement.
eBay India announced the partnership via a tweet.
https://twitter.com/ebayindia/status/892317861024223232
Besides, the companies will also partner to leverage opportunities in cross-border trade, it added.
“As a result, Flipkart customers will get expanded product choices with the wide array of global inventory available on eBay while eBay customers will have access to a unique Indian inventory from Flipkart sellers,” the statement said.
Flipkart also welcomed the partnership with a tweet.
Here’s to the new member of the Flipkart family – @ebayindia. Looking forward to the journey of being bigger, better and stronger with you. pic.twitter.com/SdIoRB1gY3
— Flipkart (@Flipkart) August 1, 2017
The partnership will, therefore, provide an opportunity to sellers on Flipkart’s platform to expand their sales globally.
“Our coming together directly benefits Indian customers and sellers for whom we want to provide the best possible e- commerce experience. This is a step in that direction,” Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said.
It will be interesting to see what impact will Flipkart eBay India merger will have on Amazon and other E-commerce players, while Amazon is working to expand its logistics department.
Tellus what you think about the merger in the comments below.
