The 36-year-old Binny, who co-founded Flipkart with fellow IITian Sachin Bansal in 2007, has “strongly denied the allegation”. “Nevertheless, we had a responsibility to ensure the investigation was deliberate and thorough. While the investigation did not find evidence to corroborate the complainant’s assertions against Binny, it did reveal other lapses in judgment, particularly a lack of transparency, related to how Binny responded to the situation,” said a joint Flipkart-Walmart statement.
In a separate statement, Binny said the allegations were “uncorroborated after a thorough investigation completed by an independent law firm”, adding that they had left him “stunned”.
Acknowledging that “these have been challenging times for my family and me”, he said, “I am concerned that this may become a distraction for the company and the team, for which I am deeply sorry.”
As Flipkart’s largest individual shareholder with about 5.6%, he will continue to be on the board – but his exit from the day-to-day management of the group marks the end of the Era of the Bansals.
Ironically, it was Binny who went head-to-head with Flipkart’s other founder in pushing the deal with Walmart, leading to Sachin quitting the company lock, stock and barrel – his 6% stake leaving him about a billion dollars richer, but from almost all accounts, somewhat bitter. Sachin, who had been Flipkart’s chairman and longest-serving CEO, is thought to have favoured a deal with Amazon, the King Kong of e-comm, also the world’s second-most valuable company (after Apple).
According to a Reuters report, the investigation “stemmed from an allegation of sexual assault that dates back a few years”. It quotes a source saying, “In late July ... an allegation came to us,” adding that “the individual concerned was a former Flipkart associate who was not with the company at the time of making the allegation”.
While both Binny and Walmart are believed to have agreed to say nothing beyond their coordinated official statements, some old-timers at Flipkart feel the US giant, which now owns 77% in the Bengaluru-headquartered company, has used an “old case” to assume total control of their new acquisition. Others say that Walmart's problem was with “non-disclosure” of the alleged incident.
According to the joint statement, Kalyan Krishnamurthy will continue to be CEO of Flipkart, while Ananth Narayanan will still head Myntra and Jabong, reporting into Krishnamurthy. There is no word yet on who the new chairman will be.
from Times of India https://ift.tt/2QBwPm8
