India’s largest e-tailer Flipkart’s CEO Binny Bansal has quit as the Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) after an investigation into an alleged "serious personal misconduct", Walmart Inc said in a press statement. Kalyan Krishnamurthy will now handle the group business of Flipkart. He currently heads Flipkart's e-commerce platforms.
"His decision follows an independent investigation done on behalf of Flipkart and Walmart into an allegation of serious personal misconduct," Walmart’s statement. The US-based retail giant acquired Flipkart in March for $16 billion.
The company said that Binny has strongly denied the allegation.
"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. Because of this, we have accepted his decision to resign," said Walmart.
"Nevertheless, we had a responsibility to ensure the investigation was deliberate and thorough," it added.
Although there were rumours that Binny would eventually quit after Walmart acquired a majority stake in Flipkart, Binny’s exit on grounds of a "serious personal misconduct" does come as a surprise. Walmart did not reveal the nature of the misconduct.
According to Walmart, Binny has been contemplating a transition for some time and that they were working together on a succession plan, which has now been accelerated.
“Meanwhile, the company has said Ananth Narayanan will continue to work as the CEO of Myntra and Jabong, and he will report into Kalyan. Sameer Nigam will continue leading PhonePe as CEO. Both Kalyan and Sameer will report directly into the board," said Walmart.
