Online marketplace Snapdeal has acquired mobile transactions platform FreeCharge for an undisclosed amount. This is arguably the one of the biggest acquisitions in the history of the internet industry in India.Snapdeal and FreeCharge combined have a user base of over 40 million.
The deal is a cash plus stock deal with the majority of it in stocks and only a small part in cash. Both the companies will continue to function independently. Also, the integration will take almost six month.
FreeCharge will run as an independent platform and all aspects of FreeCharge’s shopping experience will remain intact, the company said in its statement. Also, Freecharge’s team of 200 professionals will retain their jobs as it is.
“FreeCharge is at the forefront of the mobile commerce revolution which is taking place in India right now. We have been ahead of the curve and as a result, 85% of our transactions originate from mobile, these transactions have very high repeat customer fessionals” said Kunal Shah, Co-Founder & CEO, FreeCharge.
At FreeCharge, users can pay their mobile, DTH and utility payments across most major operators. Every day 75 million mobile recharges are done in India by a section of India’s 800 million mobile phone subscribers, out of which currently only 3 million recharges are done online.
