Snapdeal's boardroom battle continues with no decision on sale yet

Though SoftBank may have finally convinced key shareholders including co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, Nexus Venture Partners and Kalaari Capital to sell the company to Flipkart, but the terms of the sale still remain inconclusive, reports Livemint.

Citing people in the know of things, the report said that Nexus, Kalaari and the Snapdeal founders want better price deal from SoftBank to buy out their shares and the Japanese firm hasn’t yet matched their demands. The meeting, they said, remained inconclusive as Nexus Venture Partners (NVP) specifically continues to seek higher valuation for its over 10 percent stake in Snapdeal. Once NVP agrees, the deal with Flipkart could be announced in a matter of weeks, they added.

The seven-member board of Jasper Infotech, which operates Snapdeal, includes representation from investors SoftBank, Kalaari Capital and NVP, as well as co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal.

Japanese Internet major has been pushing for the sale of the company, which competes with Flipkart and Amazon to cut its losses on an apparently bad investment. SoftBank picked Snapdeal over Flipkart and Paytm in 2014 but the e-tailer has lost out to Flipkart and Paytm in e-commerce and digital payments, respectively.

Snapdeal, which was valued at $6.5 billion in its last funding round in February 2016, has seen its valuation shrink majorly and analysts believe the potential deal could be struck at a heavily discounted rate.

The deal, if it sees through will also give new ammunition to the already emboldened Flipkart to ward off competition from Amazon.