Former Flipkart Employees Push Walmart for Stock Option Liquidity Solutions

In an effort to get some answers regarding the e-commerce giant's long-awaited initial public offering (IPO), over a thousand former employees of Flipkart and its group firms have approached the boards of both Walmart and Flipkart. This change occurred because employees' vested stock options are now worthless due to the lack of clarity surrounding the listing timeframe.

The former employees of Flipkart and its affiliates are requesting the ability to cash out their vested employee stock options, according to a collective representation letter dated October 10 that was delivered to the boards of directors of both Walmart Inc. and Flipkart. Within one day of being circulated, the document "Liquidity for Vested Employee Stock Options" had more than 500 signatories.

Big Names Joining Signatories List Against Flipkart

A media house saw a copy of the representation, and it showed that the representation included former employees of Flipkart, Myntra, Cleartrip, Shopsy, Supermoney, and ANS. This comes after senior Flipkart executives had already communicated with Walmart. In their pursuit of equitable treatment with regard to their vested employee stock options, these representatives encompass former Myntra CEO Mukesh Bansal, former CBO Ankit Nagori, former CTOs Amod Malviya and Ravi Garikipati, former CHRO Mekin Maheshwari, and former VP Anuj Chowdhary.

Walmart, the parent company of the Flipkart group, is being cautious and taking a wait-and-watch strategy, so the listing could be delayed by another year or two, according to the people. These worries arise at a time when several consumer companies, such as Swiggy and Urban Company, have chosen to go public. Having said that, initial public offerings have begun for Zepto and Snapdeal.

Even Flipkart's stated strategy for entering the public markets is unclear. Sources close to the situation say that Flipkart is aiming for an initial public offering (IPO) valuation of approximately $50 billion. Many workers, both present and past, are worried that their stock option savings may be lost due to the delay. Consequently, they will have a harder time selling their assets.

Core Reason Behind Employees’ Unease

More important than an imminent IPO is the question of when workers will be able to cash in on the stock they've built up over the years. Employee stock ownership plans constitute a substantial portion of the wealth accumulation for employees with longer tenures; hence, this is of special relevance to them. Plans like these have often been associated with anticipation of a public listing or periodic liquidity occurrences. It is believed that some staff are looking for jobs outside of the group, adding fuel to the fire of uncertainty around retention.

The marketplace part of Flipkart, Flipkart Internet, reduced its consolidated net loss from 2,358.7 crore INR in 2023-24 (FY24) to 1,494.2 crore INR in 2024-25 (FY25), according to financial data collected from business intelligence platform Tofler. Thanks to increased revenue and operational leverage in its advertising and marketplace businesses, the net loss shrank by 36.7%. From FY24 to FY25, total revenues increased 14% to INR 20,807.4 crore. Operating revenue jumped 14.4% to INR 20,493.3 crore from INR 17,907.3 crore last year, while other income fell slightly to INR 314.1 crore from INR 334.3 crore.