E-commerce marketplace Snapdeal is in late stages of discussions to acquire online recharge and couponing site Freecharge, highly placed sources have confirmed to MediaNama. On being contacted by MediaNama, Freecharge founder Kunal Shah said that he has no comments to offer, neither confirming nor denying the development. Snapdeal founder Kunal Bahl hasn't responded yet to calls and a message. The deal, which was initially reported by The Economic Times, is pegged to be valued at about $450 million (Rs 2800 crore), will be the biggest such deal in the Indian consumer internet industry, eclipsing Flipkart's acquisition of Myntra for about $330 million. But why does Snapdeal want to buy Freecharge? By acquiring Freecharge, Snapdeal will end up bringing Freecharge's user acquisition on par with that of competitor Paytm, which runs a substantially large online recharge business, and funnels its user base to its marketplace platform. Snapdeal, which began as a deals site, is an e-commerce marketplace, and the recharge business can be seen as a means of increasing customer acquisition on its own platform. With e-commerce businesses are now looking at advertising as a means of monetization, Freecharge and its advertising and couponing business will be a means for Snapdeal merchants to promote themselves to the Freecharge audience. Note that Snapdeal competitor Flipkart recently bought Adiquity, an advertising platform. If Snapdeal does acquire Freecharge, the imperatives are similar to that of Ola acquiring TFS — Sumanth Raghavendra (@sumanthr) March 12, 2015 Ratan Tata invests in Snapdeal. Snapdeal in talks to…
