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Binny Bansal’s decision to quit as group CEO just six months after Flipkart’s deal with Walmart was a bolt from the blue for the startup world in India. Observers now expect a complete shake-up in the way business is done at the e-tailer.

- Deepti Chaudhary & Debojyoti Ghosh

WHEN U.S. RETAIL GIANT Walmart acquired a majority 77% stake in India’s largest e-commerce firm, Flipkart, for $16 billion in May, many employees took comfort from the fact that Binny Bansal, one of the two co-founders, would be around to take them through the transition, as Sachin Bansal was leaving the company. Now with Binny Bansal too stepping down as group CEO following an internal investigation into “an allegation of serious personal misconduct”, many are asking: What is going to happen next?

A town hall at the Gurugram headquarters of Jabong, one of Flipkart’s subsidiaries, a few days after the shock announcement on November 13 was a good indicator of the uncertainty ahead. The town hall’s proceedings confirmed what employees had been hearing in whispers: All functions of Jabong would now be integrated with Myntra, another Flipkart subsidiary, and some employees of both Myntra and Jabong would be given pink slips. “This is the second time in six months that we are unsure about what is going to happen,” said an employee.