Read more about Flipkart will become Walmart today: Is that really good news for India? on Business Standard. 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

1. 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
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

2. 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.
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