The Walmart-Flipkart deal would leave the employees of the latter richer and some of them even dollar millionaires. If reports are to be believed around 3,000 employees in total, both former and current, are said to be holding shares. Flipkart has total 10,000 employees.
On wednesday at the employee town hall, employees of Flipkart were in cheer when the co-founder Binny Bansal announced a 100 per cent buyback of vested ESOPs (employee stock options). According to the newspaper reports, the buyback could be at around $150 (Rs 10,000) a share.
Flipkart’s stock options are granted over a four-year period, with employees allowed to vest them every month after a one-year threshold.
According to the report in Times of India, among those turning dollar millionaires might be Sameer Nigam, CEO and founder of PhonePe, the payment arm of Flipkart, Amod Malviya, former chief technology officer, Sujeet Kumar, former president of operations, Vaibform Udaan. Former business finance chief, Ankit Nagori started healthcare platform Curefit, together with Myntra founder Mukesh Bansal.
Meanwhile, as Walmart and Flipkart close the $16-billion deal, retail experts and trade associations expected a slight "rumble" or "a little bit of shiver" in the industry due to it.
Anil Talreja, partner Deloitte India, told DNA Money that just like any M&A this deal could also cause a "rumble" in the industry.
"I believe it (the deal) will create a rumble in the industry. Whenever there is an M&A, a little bit of shiver is felt, but that does not shake up sturdy businesses. I am a very strong believer of the fact that the Indian market is so large that nobody can say it will saturate," he said.
Praveen Khandelwal, secretary general of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), was more assertive in his views on the adverse impact of the deal on small retailers.
"This deal will certainly affect the small retailers adversely. This deal is a mechanism through which Walmart wants to control and dominate offline retail trade. We all know that Walmart has no expertise in online retail business, but it has entered into a deal with Flipkart. So, through e-commerce they want to control and dominate the retail trade," lamented Khandelwal.
