Flipkart buys Jabong from Rocket Internet
Indian e-commerce player Flipkart has bought online fashion retailer Jabong from Rocket Internet for $70m. The acquisition was completed through Flipkart’s own fashion arm, Myntra.
Ananth Narayanan, the CEO of Myntra, commented: “The acquisition of Jabong is a natural step in our journey to be India’s largest fashion platform. We see significant synergies between the two companies especially on brand relationships and consumer experience.”
The $70m price tag is an interesting sign of the times. According to reports, up until about a year ago Amazon had been interested in Jabong – and figures between $700m and $1bn were bandied around in the local media.
Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal tweeted earlier today (26 July) that Jabong and Flipkart will “make history together”.
The timing of the Flipkart/Jabong deal has not been ideal. India’s e-commerce news agenda today has been rather dominated by the launch of Amazon Prime across 100 Indian cities.
