BENTONVILLE, AR - Just six months after Walmart topped rival retailer Amazon with a bid to invest $16 billion in Indian online retailer Flipkart, Binny Bansal is stepping down from his role as Flipkart CEO—amid allegations of “serious personal misconduct.”
Bansal’s resignation, given early November 13, 2018, took effect immediately. A statement released by Flipkart and Walmart noted that Bansal “strongly denies the allegation” against him and chose to resign because “recent events risked becoming a distraction.”
The resignation reportedly follows an internal investigation into the allegations against Bansal.
“While the investigation did not find evidence to corroborate the complainant’s assertions against Binny, it did reveal other lapses in judgement, particularly a lack of transparency, related to how Binny responded to the situation,” Walmart and Flipkart noted in their joint statement. “Because of this, we have accepted his decision to resign.”
The statement continued: “Binny has been contemplating a transition for some time and we have been working together on a succession plan, which has now been accelerated. Going forward, Kalyan Krishnamurthy will continue to be CEO of Flipkart, which will now include Myntra and Jabong, continuing to operate as separate platforms within the Flipkart business. Ananth Narayanan will continue providing great leadership as CEO of Myntra and Jabong, and will report into Kalyan. Sameer Nigam will continue leading PhonePe as CEO. Both Kalyan and Sameer will report directly into the board.”
For more, read Walmart and Flipkart’s joint statement in its entirety here.
