E-commerce major Amazon and NR Narayana Murthy’s Catamaran on Monday said they have mutually decided to not continue their joint venture – Prione Business Services – beyond May 2022.
The announcement comes on a day when the Supreme Court refused to entertain the pleas of Amazon and rival Flipkart against the Competition Commission of India’s investigation into alleged violations of the competition laws.
Prione Business Services – the joint venture between Amazon and Catamaran – was formed in 2014 and is coming up for renewal on May 19, 2022.
“The two partners today announced they have mutually decided to not continue their joint venture beyond the end of its current term,” the companies said in a joint statement.
Amazon and Catamaran, however, did not disclose the reason behind the decision.
Cloudtail – a wholly-owned subsidiary of Prione Business Services – is one of the biggest sellers on Amazon.in.The JV has enabled over 3 lakh sellers and entrepreneurs to go online and helped 4 million merchants with digital payment capabilities, providing these SMBs and merchants access to millions of customers across the country, the statement said.
“As our JV with Amazon reaches the end of its tenure, I reflect on this successful partnership that introduced the power of digitisation and empowered hundreds of thousands of SMBs across big and small towns. We would like to thank Amazon for the partnership that leaves behind a strong legacy of shaping e-commerce in India,” MD Ranganath, President of Catamaran, said.
Amit Agarwal, Global Senior VP and Country Head – Amazon India, said the companies had entered into a JV in the early days of e-commerce in India with a shared vision of transforming hundreds of thousands of small businesses in a fast-changing digital world by providing online capabilities enabling them to access customers both in India and globally.
“We are humbled by how the JV exceeded its vision, helping online commerce evolve through the unrelenting efforts of hundreds of its employees, positively impacting over 4.3 million small businesses, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs, and contributing to India’s digital economy,” he added.
