Alibaba weighing M&A options to make it big in India

Alibaba, which is planning to enter the Indian e-commerce arena next year, is reportedly eyeing to acquire ShopClues.com and might merge it with PayTM, according to a report in The Times of India.

The report further adds that the company has already started the process to separate PayTM’s core payment business and the smaller commerce business into two separate entities.

Sources aware of the development say that former Zynga and Yahoo executive K Guru Gowrappan, who has been handling Alibaba’s growth in Asian markets, is driving the M&A talks with the senior management of ShopClues.

In an email response to ToI, Alibaba’s spokesperson has refused to confirm the news, but said, “India is an important emerging market with great potential and we are absolutely committed to developing this market for the long term. We see the market as a natural progression of our strategy to expand Alibaba’s global footprint, and believe that it offers tremendous opportunities for the expansion of our ecosystem for doing commerce globally.”

Alibaba is presently on a hunt to acquire several startups relevant to its business which probably looks like its strategy to create a strong entity which can compete against the likes of Amazon India from the very beginning.

The Chinese e-commerce giant is also apparently searching for 20,000 sqft of corporate office space in the country's technology capital, Bengaluru to launch operations by the end of the current calendar or early next year, as per another report in TOI.

Bengaluru, with a large pool of technology workers and a vibrant startup ecosystem, is also the base of American rival Amazon and local leader Flipkart. According to the sources familiar with the matter, the initial office space requirement is for 150-200 people, with options to take up later.