US retail giant Walmart Inc has agreed to buy a controlling stake in Flipkart, according to Masayoshi Son, chief executive of Softbank, the largest investor in India’s largest e-commerce marketplace. The Japanese investment giant had put $2.5 billion into Flipkart last August for around 20 per cent stake, which will now be worth around $4 billion, Son said at an earnings webcast on Wednesday.

He did not elaborate any further on the terms of the deal. Other people in the know have said that Walmart will acquire as much as 75 per cent in Flipkart, with an investment of $15 ...