Flipkart-Walmart deal gets CCI consent

The Competition Commission of India (CCI), the anti-trust regulator of the country, on Wednesday approved the proposed acquisition of e-commerce major Flipkart by American multinational retail corporation Walmart.

On Wednesday, the CCI sent out a tweet from its official Twitter handle, giving a stamp of approval for the deal to go through. Further details of the development are awaited.

"@CCI_India approves proposed acquisition of Flipkart Private Limited by Wal-Mart International Holdings, Inc," the tweet read.

Walmart International Holdings, Inc, the company based in Bentonville in the United States, had in May announced that it would pay approximately USD 16 billion for an initial stake of approximately 77 per cent in Flipkart.

However, traders and shopkeepers had opposed the Flipkart-Walmart deal and urged the Centre to take substantial steps to withhold it.

Meanwhile, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI (M) had also vehemently opposed the move back then, saying the deal would have a detrimental impact on the small and medium enterprise sector (SME) in the country.