Flipkart acquisition: Walmart founder's grandson Steuart Walton, two others to join e-retailer's board

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, in a town hall meeting on Thursday, reportedly told Flipkart employees that Steuart Walton, the grandson of Walmart founder Sam Walton, Judith McKenna, the president at Walmart International, and Dirk Van den Berghe, regional CEO of Walmart Canada and Asia, will join the Indian firm’s Board. Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal and CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy will also be part of the Board, reported  The Economic Times. [caption id=“attachment_4373135” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters image[/caption] A day after adding Flipkart to its shopping cart at a fancy price tag, McMillon told Flipkart staffers that the deal was among the best decisions and emphasised that India was the best place was to be in. He is also learnt to have said that the company intends to “empower” Flipkart and its staff as well as learn from them about building full ecosystems and payments. “It is our intention to just empower you and let you run – speed matters, decisiveness matters,” McMillon said in his address to Flipkart employees. The Walmart chief stated that the values of the two companies were “very much aligned”. In what is now the biggest M&A deal in Indian e-commerce sector, Walmart on Wednesday announced it will buy a near 77 percent stake in Flipkart for about $16 billion (Rs 1.05 lakh crore). Walmart’s investment includes $2 billion of new equity funding that would help Flipkart accelerate its growth pace amid stiff competition from Amazon, which is also pouring money into its India operations. The fast-growing e-commerce space also has a number of smaller and niche players like SoftBank and Alibaba-backed Paytm Mall, Snapdeal and ShopClues. With inputs from PTI