But removing Sachin wouldn’t look good either, as he had been an active participant in the talks with Walmart. Walmart executives would surely be unsettled by the exit of both the Flipkart founders. To ease their doubts, Binny would have to abandon his desire to quit Flipkart, if need be. Binny had kept himself on the periphery of the merger negotiations for the past few months. Now, he was thrust back onto the battlefield. Like Sachin, Binny stood to make more than $1 billion from the Walmart sale. Just a few weeks more and this astounding wealth would be his, at least on paper. As he weighed his options, this became the most important consideration for Binny. Unlike Sachin, he had little inclination to toil for another decade or longer at Flipkart. He also truly believed that Sachin wasn’t equipped to run Flipkart as CEO. The debacle of 2015 had convinced Binny that Sachin lacked the discipline and rigour to run a company of Flipkart’s size. Binny had so far remained silent about Sachin’s demands; now he would have to reveal his stance. It was unavoidable, as Sachin was counting on the backing of his co-founder in his endeavour to extract the desired concessions from Walmart. When he had taken over as CEO in January 2016, Binny had surprised everyone who knew him by keeping Sachin out of the company’s affairs. Two and a half years later, he would reprise this act, even if it was with some reluctance.
Back at the Walmart offices, Lee, Sachin, Binny and the rest of the Flipkart team had assembled with the Walmart officials for one last discussion. It had become clear to everyone in the room that Sachin’s terms weren’t going to be met. It made no sense for Walmart to buy a majority stake and not secure equivalent voting rights. For Flipkart’s part, it was equally inconceivable that Kalyan would agree to Sachin being given the right to fire him. In exasperation, Lee urged Sachin to drop his demands, and accused him of putting the transaction at risk.
In the nine or so years that they had known each other, it was the first time that Lee had lost his temper with Sachin. After a moment’s shock, Sachin recovered and turned to Binny. He had been sure that Binny would support his claim. But Binny made it clear that he wasn’t on Sachin’s side either. Nevertheless, Sachin stood his ground and raged that Lee had been plotting to turn both Walmart and Flipkart teams against him.
Disturbed by this civil war between the seniormost officials of the company that was to be its biggest-ever acquisition, the Walmart team suspended the discussions. They told the Flipkart executives to get their act together and present one final list of terms agreed upon beforehand.
Towards the end of April 2018, the Flipkart team returned to Bangalore from Bentonville, unsure about the status of the sale.
Leaving Sachin out, the Flipkart board conferred over a brief call. Everyone agreed on what had to be done. It was leftto three members of Flipkart’s board – one of whom was Binny Bansal – to inform Sachin that his demands weren’t being met and that he was being cut out of the deal altogether.
Sachin couldn’t believe that, in a matter of days, the transaction he had supposedly fronted for Flipkart was being summarily snatched away from him. It was hard to comprehend that Lee Fixel could banish him so coldly. He was in disbelief that his co-founder had deserted him. Most of all, he couldn’t come to terms with the reality of having to leave the company that he had thought of as his own.
In the last week of April, Flipkart officials informed their Walmart counterparts about Sachin’s departure. The news was jarring for the Walmart team. They asked for some time to consider this development.
While Walmart was weighing its next move, the Flipkart officials began to draw up a plan to announce Sachin’s exit. It would have to be handled delicately. Binny took Flipkart’s PR chief in confidence and began preparing a communication strategy. As they discussed the strategy in a small conference room at the Flipkart headquarters, Binny found that he couldn’t stop trembling.
On 26 April, less than two days after Sachin’s exit had been finalized, a reputed technology news website published an article which claimed that Binny may leave Flipkart after its sale to Walmart.10 For months, the media had been giving a blow-by-blow account of the Flipkart–Walmart–Amazon saga. Rumours about Binny’s supposed exit had been circulating amongst reporters, but the website factordaily.com was the first to publish a story on the subject. The irony, of course, was that the piece had come out just as Binny’s stay had been prolonged, perhaps indefinitely.
Binny woke up to the article the next morning. He had no appetite for appreciating the irony. He was already on edge, aware that the Flipkart PR chief was perceived to be Sachin’s man. Before the end of the day, Binny fired him.
A few days later, Walmart officials informed the Flipkart management that they would proceed with the deal on two conditions: one, Lee would have to continue on the company’s board for a few more years; and second, Binny would have to remain Group CEO as well as take on the role of Chairman.
THE PICTURE SAID IT ALL.
On 10 May 2018, Flipkart released an ostensibly warm blog post in which Binny bid farewell to Sachin. At the end of the post was a picture of Sachin, Binny and Kalyan.11
They were standing close together. But it was the position of the three that caught the eye, revelatory, like a Freudian slip. Sachin was on the left, Kalyan in the middle and Binny to his right with an arm around him. The supposed camaraderie brought to one’s mind how Kalyan had been installed by investors to replace Binny as CEO only last year. The
