Flipkart’s ex-employees have reportedly taken their concerns over the vested ESOPs directly to parent company Walmart’s board, adding pressure ahead of the e-commerce giant’s listing, according to a Moneycontrol report.
The report said that a group of at least eight former CXOs and senior executives have in an email to Walmart sought “fair and equitable treatment” for equity earned while helping build the company during early years.
It cited sources to report that over 30,000 current and former employees of Flipkart could receive ₹38,000 crore from planned buybacks — almost half of this will go to former workers.
What are the issues raised?
In the letter, signed 1 October, the former employees have told chairman Gregory B Penner and the board that they should not be disadvantaged for having left the company, especially since the IPO timeline is not set.
Some of these former employees have held their options since they were given in 2008 and 2016, the report added. They have asked the US retailer to extend former employees the same liquidity opportunity given to current employees in the past, as the equity was earned as part of their .
Those in the letter include ex-Myntra CEO Mukesh Bansal, former Flipkart CBO Ankit Nagori, ex-CTOs Amod Malviya and Ravi Garikipati, former CPO Mekin Maheshwari and former VP Anuj Chowdhary.
As per the letter, the demand is for “fairness” and not special treatment, stating: “It is difficult to understand why former employees who continue to hold vested options should be excluded solely because they are no longer employed by the company.”
“Many of us received these options 10-15 years ago, when Flipkart was still in its formative and growth stages. We contributed our time, effort, expertise, and commitment to building the and creating the value that exists today. This is not merely a request for goodwill,” the letter reportedly said.
They noted that the options were not an investment made after leaving the company but part of compensation for their work building the company. “The former employees are not asking for preferential treatment. We are asking for fair and equitable treatment of equity that was earned through our years of service. We therefore request that Walmart gives a complete exit opportunity to all eligible former employees holding vested options,” they wrote.
Timeline of Flipkart IPO uncertain
The report noted that Flipkart’s IPO timeline is uncertain and for many current and former employees a public listing would be the way to encash private company into wealth. It added that private talks of around $2 billion earlier this year did not go through, and later Walmart asked CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy to prioritise profitability and only then pursue public market ambitions.
In a joint statement, Walmart and told Moneycontrol that a public listing remains part of the company’s strategic roadmap and the IPO will happen “when the timing is right”.
The former executives have asked Walmart’s board for a written response to their request, adding that they “hope that Walmart will ensure that the value created over the years is shared fairly among all those who contributed to that journey”.