Walmart-Flipkart deal soon

Purchase of new equity likely to value e-commerce firm at at tleast $18 billion

Global retail No:1 Walmart Inc. could seal a deal to buy a more than 51% stake in Indian online marketplace Flipkart as early as next week, Reuters quoted two sources familiar with the matter as saying.

The U.S. retail giant has been in talks with Flipkart for months to acquire a controlling stake in the firm as it looks to take on rival Amazon.com Inc. head-on in India. SoftBank Group, which owns about a fifth of Flipkart, was unwilling to sell a part of its stake as Walmart was offering to buy existing shares at a valuation of $12 billion, a price the Japanese investor considered low