Walmart investors may have given the thumbs-down to its $16 billion investment in India's Flipkart, the country's largest ecommerce company, with the U.S. retailer's shares falling on the news by more than 4%
But the largest transaction in the history of online retailing is not about the immediate impact on company valuations. It is a bet on the long-term -- one that is expected to shake up consumer markets in India, with its 1.2 billion people. The potential gains are matched only by the difficulties of execution, not least because of government rules on foreign investment that are still both too restrictive and excessively complicated.
