Of hollow victories, vague defeats

Has SoftBank won the battle but lost the war in India?

SoftBank made a whopping $1.5 billion in profit from exiting Flipkart, but it makes for a hollow victory at best and a vague defeat at worst in the larger scheme of things

14/06/18

Sumanth Raghavendra

In August 2017, SoftBank had invested $2.5 billion into Flipkart through a combination of primary and secondary purchases

Now, the company is said to have sold the entire stake to Walmart for $4 billion

But SoftBank probably made this decision more out of compulsion rather than of free choice

A $4-billion exit for a $2.5-billion investment would be the VC equivalent of scoring two runs off a ball in cricket, rather than a sixer. Why do it then?

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What is cooler than a billion dollars? Well, for one thing, $1.5 billion. Rs 10,000 crore if you like your numbers well-rounded. In profit. If you are an investor in India, a return of this size would take you right off the VC sweepstakes in terms of absolute dollars earned. It is a lot cooler…

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