Walmart takes control of Flipkart as eBay cashes out, and more trending news

It’s official: Walmart is buying 77% in Flipkart for $16 billion. The deal – the biggest-ever in the e-commerce space globally – values Flipkart at $21 billion, up sharply from its previous valuation of $12 billion. Walmart will inject $2 billion in fresh equity funding and spend the rest to acquire stakes from existing investors such as SoftBank and Naspers. Co-founder Sachin Bansal will cash out his 6% stake for $1.2 billion while his partner Binny Bansal will stay on. The deal pits the retail giant against Amazon, which has been ramping up its India investments.

eBay will relaunch its India business after exiting Flipkart. The company said in a statement that it would sell its entire $1.1-billion holding to Walmart and end its "strategic relationship with Flipkart." CEO Devin Wenig tweeted the company will bring "imported inventory to India and open up the world’s market to Indian merchants." Last year, eBay invested around $500 million in Flipkart for a 5% stake and also sold its India business to the homegrown e-tailer.

Only 5,000 of India's nearly 2 million coders have the skills to work on blockchain platforms, shows a study by talent solutions firm Belong. That said, the country does have the "potential to train another 10,000 developers" to work on blockchain as they have prior experience of working in the fin-tech industry. Blockchain professionals – whose skills range from data science, algorithms and cryptography – are mainly lapped up by Information Technology Enabled Services, and the software and financial services industries.

Business sentiment in India is at a four-year low. The country takes the sixth spot in this year's business optimism survey after topping the charts for the last four years, according to Grant Thornton's study of 2,500 companies in 37 countries. Corporate morale is down because of the weakening currency and surging oil prices. Companies have also cited bureaucratic hurdles, a dearth of skilled workforce, infrastructure constraints and funding shortage for their pessimism. Globally, business optimism at an all-time high, the report suggests.

Japanese HR company Recruit has agreed to buy Glassdoor for $1.2 billion, the jobs site announced. The move gives Glassdoor, which has 59 million monthly members, an opportunity to push into new markets, notes Bloomberg; Recruit will be able to access the site's wealth of content, particularly employee reviews. Recruit also acquired jobs platform Indeed in 2012. The deal is expected to close in September, according to Recruit.

Idea of the Day: “Careers unfold over a lifetime,” says Kellogg School of Management Dean Sally Blount; there are always obstacles — and opportunities — that can’t be planned. But the decisions you make early on in your career are crucial.

“There are multiple paths and no guarantees. It’s all part of the journey. But we do know that certain choices, especially early in one’s career, can set people on trajectories that increase the likelihood of long-term career success.”

What's your take? Join the conversations on today's stories in the comments.

Abhigyan Chand and Nirajita Banerjee / Share this using #DailyRundown