E-commerce firm Snapdeal accepted Flipkart's revised Rs 5,800 crore ($900 950 million) buyout deal on Wednesday. The deal is now pending for Snapdeal shareholders' approval.
The board of Jasper Infotech, which runs Snapdeal, approved Flipkart's bid last week, Economic Times reported.
But Flipkart's leg-up in this e-commerce war requires Azim Premji's blessings. According to ET Now, the merger needs Premji Invest's approval and Flipkart is yet to agree to the terms put forward by the billionaire investor.
Earlier, Premji had objected to special payments to certain shareholders including its two co-founders and two early backers.
The sticking point has been the differential payments, which are seen as an attempt to win over larger Snapdeal investors and the founders who have to agree to a vastly lowered valuation. Under the proposed terms, early investors like Kalaari Capital and Nexus Venture Partners would receive Rs 390crore ($60 million) in addition to their new equity in Flipkart, while founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal would get a combined Rs 195 crore ($30 million), ET reported.
Earlier this month, Flipkart had offered a term sheet to Snapdeal for an all stock acquisition for a valuation of Rs 3,575 crore ($550 million) which the latter rejected. Snapdeal's board members had also rejected Flipkart's Rs 4,550 crore ($700-$800 million) buyout bid on July 4.
Snapdeal had been mulling a Plan B in case the deal with Flipkart did not go through. Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal were conducting one-on-one meetings with senior executives including heads of multiple business units to firm up their plans for an alternative path.
Separately, Indian private-sector lender Axis Bank is the frontrunner to acquire Snapdeal's digital payments unit FreeCharge for Rs 390 crore ($60 million), reported ET.
