Flipkart's former employees petition to include 20,000-30,000 of group's ex-staff in ESOP buyout: Report
A group of former Flipkart executives has launched a petition to get around 20,000-30,000 other former employees of the e-commerce platform and its group companies together to push for their inclusion in the planned $2 billion ESOPs buyback, as per an Economic Times report today.
The executives are looking to bring together ex-employees of ANS Commerce, Cleartrip, Flipkart, Myntra, Shopsy and Super Money together to push parent firm Walmart on their demands regarding the vested employee stock options ahead of the platform's IPO, it added.
Walmart did not respond to queries, it said.
The petition on 10 October comes days after executives emailed Walmart's board seeking a buyout of their ESOPs. The report said that in response, the US-based company's legal counsel said former employees will be considered as part of liquidity in Flipkart's IPO, but did not specify commitments.
In the petition, the employees said that lack of clear timeline could leave them in limbo for years till the IPO comes to fruition. They added that this is a request for dialogue rather than legal notice or claim, the report added citing a source.
Bloomberg on 9 October reported that a group of former Flipkart executives urged Walmart to buy out their stock options, seeking to cash in while the US retailer weighs options including a separate listing for the India e-commerce operator.
With no visibility regarding the timing of the IPO, a group of eight former C-suite and senior executives said a purchase of their shares by Walmart would allow them to liquidate their holdings. The former executives appealed to Walmart’s board in a letter seen by Bloomberg News and earlier reported by the Economic Times, it said.
The ex-employees said they’ve held the stock options for as many as 15 years in some cases. Current Flipkart employees were offered the opportunity this year to sell stock options, the group said.
“We appreciate the perspective of all employees — current and former — and value their feedback. As with anything raised, we take it seriously,” Walmart told Bloomberg in a statement.
Flipkart was founded in Bangalore in 2007 by two former Amazon.com Inc. engineers, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal (who are not related). Just like Amazon, they began by selling books online before expanding to more expensive products such as electronics and smartphones, the report said.
In 2018, Walmart acquired a controlling stake in the company for $16 billion — its biggest-ever deal, bringing its high-stakes battle for online retail supremacy with Amazon to India. Sachin sold off his entire stake to Walmart and left. Binny too exited within months and sold off his remaining shares by 2023, it added.
Flipkart has said that its priority is to serve customers, and that an IPO is a target for the company. “An IPO remains an active part of our strategic roadmap, and we will move forward when the timing is right. By focusing on readiness today, we can ensure that when we are ready to make our public debut, we do so from a position of clear operational and financial strength,” Flipkart and Walmart said in a joint statement last month.
(With inputs from Bloomberg)
For about a decade, Livemint—News Desk has been a credible source for authentic and timely news, and well-researched analysis on national news, business, personal finance, corporates, politics and geopolitics. We bring the latest updates on all the listed companies on BSE and NSE, startups, mutual funds, Union ministries, geopolitics, and untapped human interest stories from around the world, helping our readers to stay informed on the latest developments around the globe. Our Coverage Areas 1. Companies: Comprehensive news and analysis on listed and unlisted companies, corporate announcements, corporate chatter, C-suite, business trends, hiring alerts, layoffs, work-life balance, world's top billionaires and richest and more. 2. Personal finance: Insights into mutual funds, small savings schemes like - PPF, SSY, post office savings scheme, stock to watch, personal loans, credit cards, top bank FDs, real estate, income tax and more. 3. Politics: Comprehensive coverage of general elections, state elections and bypolls, Lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabha, Parliament, PMO, PIB, finance ministry, home ministry, among other union ministries and government departments. 4. National News: From metro cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and e to untapped stories from rural India, we cover human interest, health, education, crime and courts, and law and order, among other areas of public interest. 5. Economy: In-depth analysis of India's macro and micro-economic indicators like- GDP, inflation, forex, fiscal deficit, current account deficit, interest rate cycle, economic recovery, RBI circulars, indirect taxes, GST, Insolvency and Bankruptcy imports, exports and everything that impacts Indian economy. 6. Geopolitics: Well-rounded and deeply researched coverage on US News, Oval Office European Union, Ukraine Russia War, middle-east crisis, royal families and global leaders like - Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, Xi Jinping and premiers of other leading economies in the world. Meet the Team 1. Gulam Jeelani, Political Affairs Editor 2. Sugam Singhal, Senior Assistant Editor 3. Chanchal, Assistant Editor 4. Sanchari Ghosh, Chief Content Producer 5. Pratik Prashant Mukane, Chief Content Producer 6. Sayantani Biswas, Chief Content Producer 7. Ravi Hari, Deputy Chief Content Producer 8. Garvit Bhirani, Deputy Chief Content Producer 9. Akriti Anand, Senior Content Producer 10. Jocelyn Felix Fernandes, Senior Content Producer 11. Swastika Das Sharma, Content Producer 12. Mausam Jha, Content Producer 13. Riya R Alex, Trainee Content Producer
Get Latest real-time updates
Catch all the Business News , Corporate news , Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
More
✕
Wait for it…
Oops! Looks like you have exceeded the limit to bookmark the image. Remove some to bookmark this image.