Snapdeal Human Resources Head Saurabh Nigam quits

By

Maverick Martins

Published
May 31, 2017

Online retailer Snapdeal is struggling to hold on to its top leadership amid talks of a potential sale of the e-commerce firm to larger rival Flipkart.  After the exit of several senior executives at Snapdeal Human Resources Head Saurabh Nigam has called it quits at the company. 

Snapdeal, over the past many quarters, has seen exit of senior executives like Tony Navin, Sandeep Komaravelly, Anand Chandrasekaran, Abhishek Kumar and Amit Maheshwari. 


A Snapdeal spokesperson confirmed the development. “After spearheading Snapdeal’s Human Capital function for more than three years, Saurabh Nigam has decided to move on to pursue further career interests in a field close to his heart,” the spokesperson said in an e-mailed response. Post the transition, Pravin Kutty, Associate Vice President – HR and Administration, will head the Human Capital function, the spokesperson was quoted by a news agency.

Nigam’s exit comes at a time when Snapdeal’s largest investor SoftBank has been proactively mediating a potential sale of Snapdeal to Flipkart for the last few weeks.

The Japanese investment firm, according to sources, has succeeded in getting board members to agree to the said sale and a term sheet for due diligence with Flipkart has been signed. 
One of the leading contenders in the Indian e-commerce space, Snapdeal has seen its fortunes failing amid strong competition from Amazon and Flipkart.

Compared to a valuation of about USD 6.5 billion in February 2016, the sale to Flipkart could see Snapdeal being valued at about USD 1 billion. 

The deal between Snapdeal and Flipkart, if completed, would mark the biggest acquisition in the Indian e-commerce space.