According to a newly released report from Re/code, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is talks to purchase around a 20 % stake in Micromax, India’s second-largest smartphone manufacturer. Citing unnamed sources, the report states that upon completion, the sale would allow Alibaba to speculate as much as $1.2 billion inside smartphone maker.
Micromax and Alibaba come in talks for a while, even so the discussions, let by Japanese telecoms firm SoftBank, were ultimately stalled “over differences in valuations”. Re/code’s sources state that Alibaba wants to speculate in Micromax to possess more use of Internet users in India. Alibaba may use this investment to reveal its own services to Micromax devices, including Alipay, the company’s online payment platform. Additionally, the stake sale could seriously help Micromax raise money since it expands into home based business segments worldwide.
It’s perfectly logical why Alibaba is interested in Micromax – the smartphone maker currently holds about 18 percent marketshare in India and is particularly growing rapidly each and every month. And with Alibaba’s combination of a unique mobile operating-system and significant e-commerce marketplace, there’s little doubt that Alibaba should be able to gain a significant foothold in India detail deal goes thru.