Myntra CEO leaves, in discussions with Hotstar

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Jan 14, 2019

Ananth Narayanan, the CEO of online fashion portal Myntra, has left the business and is engaging in talks with Hotstar where he may take up the role of CEO. After speculation on the matter, Myntra confirmed the news today.

Sources close to the development told ET Bureau that Narayanan is currently in negotiations with Hotstar, a video streaming app one’d by Star-TV. Narayanan could be made CEO of the business as its previous CEO, Ajit Mohan, left for the role of managing director at Facebook India.

Sources also mentioned that, as Narayanan was a consultant at McKinsey for many years, he could also choose to leave for the US and rejoin the practice.

“Post the restructuring of the fashion business at the Flipkart group, Myntra and Jabong merged and Walmart did not see a clear role for Narayanan,” the source told ET Bureau.

“Also, Narayanan himself was not very certain about the road ahead in this new set-up, as Krishnamurthy was going to take direct control of the two entities as the Flipkart CEO.”

Narayanan joined Myntra in 2015 as CEO after previously working for McKinsey for 15 years in several countries. Narayanan had been running both Myntra and Jabong after Flipkart acquired the latter. 

A number of high-level management changes have taken place since Walmart acquired 77 percent of Flipkart last summer. Flipkart is also anticipated to appoint Amar Nagaram, who joined Myntra from Flipkart, as chief technology and product officer (CTPO), a newly created role.

Flipkart’s CEO, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, has restructured both Flipkart and Myntra’s technology teams significantly since he took on the role.