Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Foxconn Technology Group are in talks to jointly invest about $500 million in Snapdeal.com, according to The Wall Street Journal(WSJ) report.
WSJ quoting unnamed source said that Alibaba and Foxconn have decided to take a combined 10 per cent stake in Snapdeal. The expected deal could value the e-retailer Snapdeal at about $5 billion and would need regulatory approval in India
Alibaba has been looking at acquisition of Indian e-tailers that have a large customer base. Alibaba Group has several small businesses and through its platform it sells goods ranging from spices to chocolates to tea.
India with its expanding Internet users and smartphone penetration is one of the largest online retail markets in the world and is seeing growing interest from investors globally.
In January this year, Alibaba signed a memorandum of understanding with industry body CII for greater business engagement between SMEs in India and China.
In March, Alibaba pulled out of talks with Snapdeal on stake purchase due to high valuations being sought by the homegrown online marketplace.
In the past few days there have been reports that Foxconn Technology is in talks to manufacture Apple’s iPhone in India.
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