BENGALURU/MUMBAI: Amazon.com Inc has made a formal offer to buy a 60 per cent stake in online retailer Flipkart, CNBC-TV18 reported on Wednesday, threatening to complicate Walmart Inc's bid to buy a majority stake in the e-commerce player.
Sources told Reuters earlier this month that Walmart was likely to reach a deal to buy a majority stake in Flipkart, Amazon's biggest competitor in India, by the end of June for $10 billion to $12 billion.
The deal would be the US retail giant's biggest acquisition of an online business and would kick off a battle with Amazon in the local e-commerce market that analysts forecast will be worth $200 billion a year within a decade.
CNBC-TV18 reported that Amazon had offered Flipkart a breakup fee of $2 billion to convince it to discuss an offer which analysts say would bring with it substantial antitrust challenges, as Flipkart and Amazon dominate the online shopping space in Asia's third-largest economy.
Two sources close to the matter, asking not to be named, confirmed to Reuters that Amazon was interested in buying Flipkart, but declined to give further details.
One of the sources said that Flipkart had vetoed an approach from Amazon for a 51 to 55 per cent stake in the company two years ago, judging its offered price as far too low at the time.
"Now with Walmart in the mix things are different," the source said. "To the best of my knowledge no decision has been made yet. There is no deadline per se."
CNBC-TV18, citing unnamed sources, said Amazon's new bid was likely to be on a par with Walmart's, but that Flipkart's investors and founders continue to favor the deal with Walmart, with founder Sachin Bansal overseeing final negotiations.
A spokesman for Walmart declined to comment, while Amazon said it does not offer comments on rumours and speculation.
Flipkart did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.