Flying Solo
Snapdeal co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal have called off merger talks with rival Flipkart and decided to go solo. Flipkart had offered to buy Snapdeal at a revised price of $900-950 million, a deal which was being negotiated by its investors for months. The company is now preparing for Snapdeal 2.0, which has been backed by its early investors. Chief Executive Kunal Bahl also wrote a letter to employees after the announcement, saying he refused to let any other company buy Snapdeal because he believes there is no one model to win the e-commerce market in India. “We firmly believe in our new direction – Snapdeal 2.0 – part of which is a laser focus on being a champion for all sellers in India, enabling anyone to set up a store online in a few minutes and focussing on providing a large selection of products at great prices to consumers,” he wrote.