Softbank aims to acquire Flipkart on $10 billion valuation

SoftBank Group Corp. offered to buy Flipkart Ltd for US$85-89 per share at US$10 billion valuation. The Minato conglomerate aims to acquire the e-commerce giant headquartered in Bengaluru owned by investors including Tiger Global Management, Accel, Kalaari Capital and IDG Ventures.

SoftBank has offered to acquire Flipkart shares owned by Tiger Global, Accel, Kalaari Capital, IDG Ventures and former employees. SoftBank is rumored to have offered a figure of US$85-89 per share on US$9-10 billion valuation.

The price was lower than capitalization in two rounds of funding of US$1.4 billion each from SoftBank in August and others from eBay Inc, Microsoft Corp. and Tencent Holdings Ltd in April. Both funding aims to encourage Flipkart to compete against Amazon India.

Tiger Global is expected to sell shares worth US$700 million. Sales enabled Accel to record an increase from an investment of US$55 million in 2008. For Fixel, the sale of those shares would reduce the exposure on which the company has planted about US$1 billion in several rounds starting late 2009.