Flipkart-Myntra From A Merger To An Acquisition: Farhat Fatima
Flipkart-Myntra From A Merger To An Acquisition: Farhat Fatima
Flipkart-Myntra From A Merger To An Acquisition: Farhat Fatima
Farhat Fatima
Abstract
1. Introduction
Mergers and Acquisitions represent the ultimate in change for a business. No other
event is more difficult, challenging, or chaotic as a merger and acquisition. According
to Oxford, the expression ‘Merger’ means “Combining of two commercial companies
into one”. The term "Acquisition" refers to the acquisition of assets by one company
from another company. In an acquisition, both companies may continue to exist. The
acquiring company will remain in business and the acquired company will be
integrated into the acquiring company and thus, the acquired company ceases to exist
after the merger. Transfer of technology develop prospects with multiple challenges
for any enterprise. The prospects include access to new markets that were previously
closed due to cost, regulation, or indirect barriers, the ability to beat resources such as
capital, knowledge and labor. Challenges come from foreign competitors entering
firms’ domestic markets, and from domestic competitors reducing their costs through
global sourcing, moving production offshore or gaining economies of scale by
expanding into new markets. Globalization challenges firms to become more
streamlined and efficient while simultaneously extending the geographic reach of their
operations [Kraemer et al., 2002].
Moving over to the fastest growing and striking on the position of third largest
economy, Indian e-commerce has evolved significantly in the last decade, and there
are many aspects of e-commerce like Tele shopping, online shopping and mobile,
which are all part of what is digital commerce followed by Flipkart.com,
Snapdeal.com, Jabong.com and Myntra.com; major players on the ground. eBay
entered India nine years ago through the acquisition of Baazee.com, and five years
prior to that was the start of organized retail in India. So, it is about 15 years old. What
is interesting though in India is that the entire evolution of e-commerce happened in
over 15 years whereas in advanced markets like the U.S., it took over 50-60 years.
Flipkart, often termed as Amazon of India acquires smaller e-commerce rival Myntra
to combat threat of Amazon.com the world's biggest online retailer, last year in June
slashed prices and rolled-out next-day delivery in a bid to win market share of e-
commerce. The pillar of Indian e-commerce industry is its igniting internet user base
as millions of new users gain access through smartphones. India has an internet user
base of over 200 million users as of 2013.
2. Literature Review
An understanding of mergers and acquisitions as a discipline is increasingly important
in modern business. A glance at any business newspaper or business news web page
will indicate that mergers and acquisitions are big business and are taking place all the
time [Roberts, Wallace, Moles 2003, 2010]. Competitive pressure has been identified
through numerous studies as an important determinant of IT adoption, whether it is
EDI diffusion [Banerjee & Golhar, 1993; Ramamurthy et al., 1999; Webster, 1995],
adoption of IT innovations [Gatignon & Robertson, 1989; Grover, 1993], degree of
computerization [Dasgupta et al., 1999] or e-business adoption [Zhu et al., 2002].
Outstanding planning and execution are essential for a successful strategic alliance.
Integration is reached only after mapping the process and issues of the companies to be
Flipkart - Myntra; From a Merger to an Acquisition 73
merged. Even then just 23% of all acquisitions earn their cost of capital. When M&A
deals are announced, a company’s stock price rises only 30% of the time. In acquired
companies, 47% of executives leave within the first year, and 75% leave within the
first three years. Synergies projected for M&A deals are not achieved 70% of the time.
Productivity of merged companies can be affected by up to 50% in the first year and
financial performance of newly merged companies is often lacking [Practical guide for
Merger and Acquisition, 2009]. Using the Internet for transactions and coordination
can save time and money on delivery of goods by using rich information flows to
simplify and streamline the flows of physical goods in the supply chain [Dedrick &
Kraemer, 2002; Sturgeon, 2002]. Finally, firms that buy and sell in international
markets are under pressure from trading partners to adopt e-commerce (especially
B2B) to improve coordination with other members of the value chain. Subsequently
Indian e-commerce has grown at a swift pace in the last 5 years from around 15
billion revenues in 2007-2008 to 139 billion in 2012-2013, translating into a
compound annual growth rate [CAGR] of over 56 percent [CRISIL, 2014].
One of the biggest names in the Online Retail Industry and a leading e-Commerce
player in the Country; Founded by Sachin Bansal & Binny Bansal in Bangalore,
Karnataka in 2007.Which was started with initial capital of 4 lakh contributed by
the founders, warehouses, offices and delivery centers across India. With over 17.5
million book titles listed, 16 different categories, more than 4 million registered users
and sale of 55000 items a day their operations are simply huge. Had 8600+ employees
till December 2013. Had a massive revenue of around 6,100 Crores [Raman, 2014].
On the other hand India’s largest fashion e-tailer Myntra is aiming for a valuation of
2,400 crore.
4. Research Methodology
This research paper is descriptive in nature and is based on the secondary data attained
from the various secondary resources such as old research papers various e-journals,
books, websites, whitepapers, newspapers and some of the governmental data etc. The
data is compared with the previous data of Indian e-commerce industry with respect to
the world economy.
E-Commerce (B2C, C2C) revenues have been growing at a whopping ~50% year
on year with USD 10billion in 2011. Technopak estimates that e-tailing in India will
grow from the current USD 0.6 billion to USD 76 billion by 2021, i.e., more than
hundredfold. The key reason for this disruptive growth lies in the fact that the market-
enabling conditions and ecosystem creation for e-tailing will outpace the same for
corporatized brick & mortar retail. This growth will offer many advantages to the
Indian economy, besides bringing in immense benefits to consumers.
The growing need of consumer in various zones, travelling, jobs, entertainment and
changing trends in fashion, has attracted customers to get comfortable ordering online.
The companies has played a vital role in building a critical mass of Indian users – and
they will continue to evolve. Key competitors of market Jabong, Flipkart, Yebhi and
makemytrip has made a tremendous growth in case of turnovers (see Fig. 2).
Many mergers are driven by the need to cut costs. However, the best mergers
seems to have strategic reasons for the business combinations. These include:
Positioning-Taking advantage of future opportunities that can be exploited when
the two companies are combined. For example, a telecommunications company might
improve its position for the future if it were to own a broad band service company.
Companies need to position themselves to take advantage of emerging trends in the
marketplace.
Gap Filling-One company may have a major weakness (such as poor distribution)
whereas the other company has some significant strength. By combining the two
Flipkart - Myntra; From a Merger to an Acquisition 77
companies, each company fills-in strategic gaps that are essential for long-term
survival.
Bargain Purchase-It may be cheaper to acquire another company then to invest
internally. For example, suppose a company is considering expansion of fabrication
facilities. Another company has very similar facilities that are idle. It may be cheaper
to just acquire the company with the unused facilities then to go out and build new
facilities on your own.
Diversification-It may be necessary to smooth-out earnings and achieve more
consistent long-term growth and profitability. This is particularly true for companies in
very mature industries where future growth is unlikely. It should be noted that
traditional financial management does not always support diversification through
mergers and acquisitions. It is widely held that investors are in the best position to
diversify, not the management of companies since managing a steel company is not the
same as running a software company.
Short Term Growth-Management may be under pressure to turnaround sluggish
growth and profitability. Consequently, a merger and acquisition is made to boost poor
performance.
Undervalued Target-The Target Company may be undervalued and thus, it
represents a good investment. Some mergers are executed for "financial" reasons and
not strategic reasons [Evans, 2000].
Marking the above explanation Flipkart which started with online bookstore
similar to Amazon and now sells products across categories, including fashion and
electronics. It now also sells white goods and furniture. It hit the billion-dollar
milestone in annual gross merchandise value last month.
Subsequently Fashion, which delivers over 35% in operating margin, is among the
most contested categories in ecommerce and has seen the emergence of players like
Jabong, Fashionara and Limeroad and even web-only brands like Yepme and Zovi.
The number is growing every month and on track to grow between 100-150 per cent
over next 3-4 years. The overall Lifestyle category in India is $45 billion, growing at
16% CAGR. The industry will cross $100 billion in 2015 with somewhere between 5-
10% of this being online.
Flipkart moved to market place model in feb 2013 where third party merchants sell
goods to shoppers through flipkart site. It allows e-commerce companies to scale up
faster & save storage & other inventory related cost as the products are held by
merchants. For Flipkart, setting up a huge fashion vertical means boosting margins,
because fashion has the highest margins-35 to 40 per cent-among all products sold
online. Myntra has big plans with its private brands like Anouk, Dress berry and
Roadster, which promise margins as high 60 per cent. Myntra will continue to operate
as a separate brand, and its founder Mukesh Bansal will occupy a seat on Flipkart's
board, heading all fashion at the new entity. Flipkart will bring in its capabilities in
customer service and technology. Both companies will also net customers that have
shopped on both portals-about 80 per cent of the country's online shoppers have
shopped on either Myntra or Flipkart. However, the companies will not integrate the
back end. The two teams will also function separately.
78 Farhat Fatima
To begin with Flipkart will invest $100 million in fashion business. On the other
hand Myntra’s goal is to generate 20,000 crore in gross sales by 2020 for which the
site needs more than $150-200 million fresh funds. Flipkart and Myntra deal will
create the first Indian e-tailing powerhouse, and provide a big fillip to India's still
nascent but very promising e-commerce industry. Myntra sells products from over 650
brands like Nike, HRX by Hrithik Roshan, Biba and Steve Madden and clocked
revenue of about Rs 1,000 crore in the previous financial year (see Fig. 7)
As part of the acquisition, Myntra co-founder Mukesh Bansal will join Flipkart's
board and will also oversee Flipkart's fashion business. Flipkart and Myntra will
remain as two separate entities, but people holding stock options in Myntra will now
hold the same in Flipkart. The current deal appears to be win-win for both companies,
and could be the making of a giant company, better positioned to address India's
growing demand for online retail-one that could put up strong competition against
rivals Flipkart, which also operates under the marketplace model allowing retailers to
offer products on its platform, has since its inception raised over $500 million.
Common investors such as early-stage investor Accel Partners and investment fund
Tiger Global are expected to remain invested in Myntra, as also recent investor Premji
Invest, which participated in the 300 crore funding round in the fashion portal in
February.
The two companies now have three common investors Accel, Tiger and Belgium-
based family office Sofina. Myntra's other investors are IDG Ventures India and
Kalaari Capital (see Fig. 8).
Flipkart - Myntra; From a Merger to an Acquisition 79
Financial details of the deal, including Myntra's valuation, were not disclosed by
the two companies, but Mukesh Bansal said: "It is a fair valuation."
ecosystem, India ranks in the bottom quartile of our comparison set of 57 countries.
Average international bandwidth capacity for every 10,000 people across the seven
aspiring countries is 28 Mbps versus 6 Mbps in India.
Poor distribution channel management: Payment Options Vary for rural and
urban customers. Customers in the metros are provided with an option of cash on
delivery while advance payment is required for non-metro customers or rural area
customers. Customers have a fear that whether they will receive the product or not if
advance payment is done.
High cost of access and usage: At $61 per Mbps (on a PPP basis), India has one
of the highest median costs of broadband access among comparable aspiring countries
— more than four times that of China, Brazil and Argentina, and 20 to 30 percent
higher than that of Vietnam and Malaysia [McKinsey, 2012 see Fig. 10]
Small range of applications and services: Internet applications are yet to scale up
in a wide range of areas that impact society, such as agriculture, education, health care,
and citizen services. Access to online government services across the country is low,
with a large quantity of government data, such as land or health records, yet to be
digitized, and large flagship Internet infrastructure projects such as the National
Optical Fiber Network yet to become fully operational
Lack of digital awareness: Only 35 percent of businesses in India offered online
services such as Web presence, compared with an average of 56 percent in aspiring
countries. In an online survey of India’s SMEs in the organized sector, they cited the
lack of education on using the Internet as among the top three reasons that prevent
consumers from using the Internet [McKinsey survey of 554 SMEs, 2012]
has a huge Internet consumer base of around 125.0 million (as of 2011), the third
largest in the world after US and China. By end-2012, the number of Internet users is
expected to increase to 150.0 million. A study conducted by IMRB and IAMAI
observed that of the total 99.0 million urban Internet users, 80.0 million were active
compared to 31.0 million active users out of the total 38.0 million in rural areas as of
June 2012. At its current pace, this number could multiply three-fold to nearly 380.0
million by 2015, surpassing the US and China. Notably, rural India has witnessed a
significant increase in penetration of active Internet users – from 2.1 per cent in 2010
to 3.7 percent in June 2012. By end- 2012, the number of active rural Internet users
would touch 38 million as against 24 million a year ago. However, even with its large
consumer base, just 1.0 per cent of the total (less than 10.0 million Internet users) is
engaged in e-commerce activities, thus reflecting a huge untapped opportunity. This
number is expected to touch 39.0 million users by 2015 as Internet penetration
increases and ecommerce becomes more secured.
The changing consumer lifestyles, supported by the younger population base of
India, have given a boost to the e-commerce business. More than half of the total 1.2
billion population of India falls under the ‘below 25 years of age’ bracket. Also, 65.0
per cent of India’s population, representing the working age group of 15 to 64 years,
would aid the further growth of e-commerce, driven by their rising disposable income.
Notably, discretionary spending in India is expected to jump to 70.0 per cent by 2025
from 52.0 per cent in 2005.
With the underlying opportunities, the industry is set to benefit, driven by strong
fundamentals and provision of continuous assistance by various PE and VC firms to
fund their expansion plans. Notably, on the investment front, the sector enjoyed inflow
of around $800 million in 2011, up from $110 million in 2010. Investments made in e-
commerce businesses by PE firms alone more than quadrupled to $467 million in 2011
compared to $99 million in 2010. The number of deals increased to 78 compared to
just 22 in 2010. The robust deal activity continued in 2012, with $242 million invested
during the January-April period. The trend over the period reflects that the average
deal size has more than doubled due to increasing traction in e-commerce activities,
which requires larger investments for growth.( see Fig. 11)
5. Conclusion
There are numerous reasons why companies decide for strategic alliances. Some
studies indicate that companies merge for improving efficiencies and lowering costs.
Other studies show that companies acquire to increase market share and gain a
competitive advantage. The ultimate goal behind a merger and acquisition is to
generate synergy values. Good strategic planning is the key to understanding if
synergy values do in fact exist. A well-researched and realistic plan will dramatically
improve the chances of realizing synergy values. The strategic partnership of Myntra
and Flipkart will provide a guidance for traditional players. They’ll leverage existing
capabilities and platforms by pursuing adjacent growth. They can expand to vertical
segments, collaborate with brands by designing their websites and open offline stores
to grow their customer base. The rapid growth of Indian e-commerce (especially e-
retail) are attracting global players and increasing investors’ interest. India needs to
extend the benefits of the Internet into sectors of the economy that have so far not been
touched. Strong internet infrastructure need to be extended beyond the top cities into
Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, and deeper into the semi-urban and rural parts of the country,
that are home to 70 percent of the population and represent an estimated 50 percent of
total household consumption.
The Indian government has restricted foreign companies from selling their
products in India through the online medium. This regulation safeguards Indian
companies against competition from global leaders such as eBay and Amazon.
Currently, 100 per cent FDI is allowed in business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce in
India, but when it comes to business-to-consumer (B2C), it is prohibited. Besides,
there is a mandatory 30 per cent local sourcing norm for foreign players. According to
a recent report by IAMAI-KPMG, Indian inventory-based e-commerce sector failed to
grow as much as international counterparts that have FDI support despite having one
of the largest internet populations. While B2C players have been in conversation with
Flipkart - Myntra; From a Merger to an Acquisition 83
the government from the beginning of 2013. However, new government might allow
FDI in e-commerce. Government should provide legal framework and guidelines in e-
commerce to expand companies’ horizons, basic rights such as intellectual property,
prevention from fraud, consumer protection, confidentiality, and etc. through which
they can expand their businesses by lowering cost and can contribute maximum to the
progression of Indian economy.
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84 Farhat Fatima
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