No flip-flop, Ananth Narayanan not quitting Flipkart
The chief of Flipkart Group's Myntra-Jabong fashion business, Ananth Narayanan on Friday denied persistent media reports that he had quit following Tuesday's unceremonious ouster of group CEO Binny Bansal by Walmart, while confirming that Myntra's chief financial officer, Dipanjan Basu, had indeed put in his papers. Mr. Narayanan did say however that Mr Basu was leaving because he had found "a great opportunity" elsewhere.
"I certainly intend to continue. I’m very excited about Myntra,”, Mr. Naryananan told a news agency on Friday, with Myntra-Jabong reiterating in a media release that the CEO of the online retail fashion company would continue to lead the team. "Myntra's independence as a business will be preserved and the team will continue to operate independently to achieve even greater success," it also said. " From a consumer perspective, the well-loved Jabong brand will also remain," said the company communique.
Mr Narayanan strongly refuted the newspaper report he had differences with Flipkart's new CEO, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, to whom he will have to report. Narayanan clarified that his relationship with Krishnamurthy was "very good". "I think the structural change will only help Myntra overall," said Narayanan. With Binny Bansal's resignation as group chief on Tuesday following an internal probe into allegations of sexual assault and what parent Walmart Inc said was "serious personal misconduct", Krishnamurthy is effectively the new head of the Flipkart Group. Bansal, meanwhile has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.