Flipkart's Binny Bansal Quits As CEO After "Personal Misconduct" Probe
Binny Bansal has been an important part of Flipkart, says Walmart US-based Walmart acquired majority stake in Flipkart in May Kalyan Krishnamurthy to continue as CEO of Flipkart
Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal has resigned as group CEO following a probe into allegations of "serious personal misconduct", the e-commerce company and its parent Walmart Inc said in a joint statement on Tuesday.
"Binny has been an important part of Flipkart since co-founding the company, but recent events risked becoming a distraction and Binny has made a decision to step down," the companies said, adding that his resignation would take effect immediately. (Read full statement here)
"His decision follows an independent investigation done on behalf of the Flipkart and Walmart into an allegation of serious personal misconduct. He strongly denies the allegation," the statement said.
"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," it added.
Kalyan Krishnamurthy, who heads the company's main Flipkart e-commerce operation, will act as chief executive for a broader group of businesses including apparel websites Myntra and Jabong.
Ananth Narayanan will continue to lead the company as CEO of Myntra and Jabong, and will report to Mr Krishnamurthy. Sameer Nigam will continue to lead digital wallet PhonePe as CEO. Both Mr Krishnamurthy and Mr Nigam will report directly to the board.
Walmart, in May this year, acquired a majority stake in Bengaluru-headquartered Flipkart in a $16-billion deal, marking the US retailer's largest-ever deal. Soon after, another co-founder, Sachin Bansal, quit the company.
With the latest development, both Flipkart founders, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, are out of the company. The two, former employees of Amazon, met as students at IIT-Delhi and together founded India's biggest e-commerce marketplace in 2007.
In 2016, Binny Bansal took over as CEO and Sachin Bansal became executive chairman.
The e-commerce major also said it remains committed to investing for the long-term and is "supportive of the leadership team's desire to evolve into a publicly-traded company in the future".
