Like WSRETAIL (Flipkart), Amazon is also Selling through Cloudtail
Amazon is selling products on its Indian website that are sourced by a joint venture with N.R. Narayana Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures, an arrangement that could draw regulatory scrutiny on the world’s largest online retailer that is already facing an inquiry for possible violation of foreign investment rules in India. Amazon Asia and Catamaran Ventures have jointly formed an entity called Cloudtail India Pvt. Ltd to sell items such as books, phones and exclusive Amazon merchandise on Amazon.in under the seller name Cloudtail, according to documents available with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).
Cloudtail India is a fully owned unit of Prione Business Services Pvt. Ltd, the documents show. Prione, in turn, is owned by Catamaran Management Services Pvt. Ltd, the acting trustee of Hober Mallow Trust (51%), Amazon Asia Pacific Resources Pvt. Ltd (48%) and Amazon Eurasia Holdings (1%). Catamaran is the family-owned fund of Infosys Ltd co-founder Murthy.
Mint couldn’t independently verify whether Catamaran Management is completely an Indian fund or has any foreign capital. Companies such as Amazon and Flipkart, India’s biggest online retailer, operate through marketplace platforms that connect small merchants with buyers, unlike in the West where 60% of products sold on Amazon are those it has sourced itself.
The change in the business model has been prompted by local regulations that bar Amazon and e-commerce websites controlled by overseas entities, including Flipkart, from selling their own inventory directly to consumers. Under such a structure, Amazon and other websites need to keep an “arm’s length distance” with their sellers.
The arm’s length principle means that e-commerce sites shouldn’t have control over the business practices of their sellers, which need to operate independently. But Amazon’s sizeable ownership in the entity that controls Cloudtail can give the online retailer a say in Cloudtail’s operations. Apart from Amazon’s ownership in Prione, two senior executives from Amazon India sit on the boards of Prione and Cloudtail, the documents cited above show.
http://www.livemint.com/Companies/5...-stake-in-seller-may-come-under-scrutiny.html
Amazon is selling products on its Indian website that are sourced by a joint venture with N.R. Narayana Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures, an arrangement that could draw regulatory scrutiny on the world’s largest online retailer that is already facing an inquiry for possible violation of foreign investment rules in India. Amazon Asia and Catamaran Ventures have jointly formed an entity called Cloudtail India Pvt. Ltd to sell items such as books, phones and exclusive Amazon merchandise on Amazon.in under the seller name Cloudtail, according to documents available with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).
Cloudtail India is a fully owned unit of Prione Business Services Pvt. Ltd, the documents show. Prione, in turn, is owned by Catamaran Management Services Pvt. Ltd, the acting trustee of Hober Mallow Trust (51%), Amazon Asia Pacific Resources Pvt. Ltd (48%) and Amazon Eurasia Holdings (1%). Catamaran is the family-owned fund of Infosys Ltd co-founder Murthy.
Mint couldn’t independently verify whether Catamaran Management is completely an Indian fund or has any foreign capital. Companies such as Amazon and Flipkart, India’s biggest online retailer, operate through marketplace platforms that connect small merchants with buyers, unlike in the West where 60% of products sold on Amazon are those it has sourced itself.
The change in the business model has been prompted by local regulations that bar Amazon and e-commerce websites controlled by overseas entities, including Flipkart, from selling their own inventory directly to consumers. Under such a structure, Amazon and other websites need to keep an “arm’s length distance” with their sellers.
The arm’s length principle means that e-commerce sites shouldn’t have control over the business practices of their sellers, which need to operate independently. But Amazon’s sizeable ownership in the entity that controls Cloudtail can give the online retailer a say in Cloudtail’s operations. Apart from Amazon’s ownership in Prione, two senior executives from Amazon India sit on the boards of Prione and Cloudtail, the documents cited above show.
http://www.livemint.com/Companies/5...-stake-in-seller-may-come-under-scrutiny.html
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