Snapdeal in talks with Infibeam for potential merger

Snapdeal appears to be talking to other potential buyers as its much reported plans to get acquired by Flipkart isn’t shaping up smoothly. According to a Times of India report, now the Softbank backed company has engaged in talks with Infibeam for a possible merger. The new talks emerged after Snapdeal rejected $700-750 million acquisition offer from Flipkart last week.

As per, TOI report, Infibeam has put in a term sheet, which is likely to value Snapdeal at $1billion. The Ahmedabad based company, which went IPO last year, will create $2-billion entity when merged with beleaguered online marketplace.  Importantly, the deal excludes Snapdeal’s logistics arm - Vulcan Express and Freecharge as well.

“While Infibeam has a focus on business-to-business commerce, Snapdeal's is a consumer-led online retail platform which is why this merger may bring in synergies in their operations. While Infibeam has given a term sheet, it's not the end of the road for Flipkart," said one of the sources to TOI.

Amidst Snapdeal merger talk with Flipkart and now Infibeam, the Gurugram based company is also trying to survive on its own by selling Vulcan and Freecharge. According to some media reports, Snapdeal is in talks with several entities such as Gati, Bank of Baroda, Axis Bank among others for sale of Vulcan and Freecharge.

Meanwhile, according to a separate report by ET, Vishal Mehta, Founder and CEO of Infibeam has denied any talks with Snapdeal for merger.

Though, the merger talk with Flipkart isn’t off the block yet. Earlier this week, Flipkart had offered revised acquisition offer with $850-900 million price range. So far, the biggest roadblock in merging Snapdeal with Flipkart is minority shareholders of the former.

Premji Invests had opposed preferential treatment to select investors and founders of the company. The investment arm of Azim Premji reportedly tried other minority stakeholders in Snapdeal to oppose favored treatment to a few.