After ploughing about $2 billion in minority stakes in Indian e-commerce businesses over the past few years, Japan's SoftBank is upping the stakes, looking to play consolidator and take a more active role at a trio of leading start-ups.
According to sources, the solar-to-tech conglomerate is seeking to secure a piece of the market leaders in everything, from payment systems to online shopping and groceries, in a series of deals that would shake up the $65-billion sector.
Among the most high-profile plans is SoftBank's push to engineer a merger between Snapdeal, the No. 3 e-commerce player and one of its biggest Indian investments to date, and market leader Flipkart. The deal could be finalised as soon as next week, one of the sources said.
SoftBank has poured around $1 billion into Snapdeal since 2014, but competition in e-commerce has risen dramatically with US giant Amazon cranking up its presence and taking the No. 2 spot from Snapdeal.
Besides Snapdeal, SoftBank is close to finalising a cash infusion of more than $1 billion into Alibaba-backed digital payments company Paytm, giving it a more direct say in that group, according to a source.
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According to sources, the solar-to-tech conglomerate is seeking to secure a piece of the market leaders in everything, from payment systems to online shopping and groceries, in a series of deals that would shake up the $65-billion sector.
Among the most high-profile plans is SoftBank's push to engineer a merger between Snapdeal, the No. 3 e-commerce player and one of its biggest Indian investments to date, and market leader Flipkart. The deal could be finalised as soon as next week, one of the sources said.
SoftBank has poured around $1 billion into Snapdeal since 2014, but competition in e-commerce has risen dramatically with US giant Amazon cranking up its presence and taking the No. 2 spot from Snapdeal.
Besides Snapdeal, SoftBank is close to finalising a cash infusion of more than $1 billion into Alibaba-backed digital payments company Paytm, giving it a more direct say in that group, according to a source.
Read More
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