US retail behemoth Walmart is paying $16bn for an initial 77% stake in Indian e-commerce company Flipkart, its largest ever deal as it looks to battle Jeff Bezos’ Amazon in one of the world’s largest and fastest growing economies.

Flipkart, which sells everything from electronics and smartphones to clothing, gives Walmart a partner in one of the world’s most attractive retail markets.

The remainder of Flipkart will be held by existing shareholders including co-founder Binny Bansal, Tencent, Microsoft and Tiger Global Management, which Walmart sees as ‘key strategic and technology partners’.

Flipkart offers over 80m products across more than 80 categories. Little wonder then that Amazon expressed interest in making a competing offer.

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