In India, SoftBank Tries, Tries Again<br />Son may lack the influence to guide Flipkart to a merger with the retail unit of Paytm, another Indian start-up<br />that is backed by Alibaba, the Chinese giant partly owned by SoftBank.<br />The Japanese conglomerate’s Vision Fund is investing $2.5 billion in the online retailer Flipkart,<br />effectively rendering worthless an earlier bet of nearly $1 billion on a rival start-up, Snapdeal.<br />It is Amazon’s main domestic rival in the battle for dominance of India’s online retail market,<br />which Forrester Research reckons will be worth $64 billion in annual sales by 2021.<br />Mr. Son’s company was the largest investor in Snapdeal, making bets at valuations worth up to $5 billion.<br />The decision to invest directly in Flipkart implies the Japanese company has given up on recovering value from the smaller company.<br />The Vision Fund, a $90-billion-odd investment vehicle managed by SoftBank, will now have a large but noncontrolling stake in Flipkart.<br />But Snapdeal represents the second time he has lost control of the founders of a prominent Indian start-up.
