Flipkart makes revised offer of about $950 mn to acquire Snapdeal

E-commerce player Flipkart has proposed a revised offer of between $900 million and  $950 million to buy smaller rival, Snapdeal, sources revealed.

According to the sources, the new proposal is being evaluated by Snapdeal's board.

Snapdeal had earlier this month rejected Flipkart's initial bid of between $800 million and $850 million as its board was unsatisfied with the offer and the payment terms.

Flipkart's revised offer was made for Snapdeal's marketplace and its e-commerce solutions provider Unicommerce but does not include its logistics arm Vulcan Express and digital payments unit FreeCharge, which may be sold separately, said the sources.

One of the sources said that Flipkart may hold back about $150 million of the deal price for 12-24 months after the consummation of a deal.

Infibeam, a listed e-commerce player, has also made an offer for Snapdeal, the sources said, adding that the Snapdeal board is likely to consider the proposal.

Japan's SoftBank Group, Snapdeal's biggest shareholder, is keen to fold the firm into Flipkart and back the biggest home-grown e-commerce provider as it battles Amazon.com for a bigger share of India's booming online retail market.

According to one of the sources, Snapdeal's founders would also like the Infibeam proposal to be evaluated before any final decision. Snapdeal is expected to make a decision on the two offers in a week or 10 days, the second source said.

Axis Bank, India's third-biggest private sector lender, top digital payments firm Paytm and a few others are in talks to acquire FreeCharge, one of the sources said.