Is ex-Googler and Flipkart employee Punit Soni on his way out?

BANGALORE/MUMBAI: Flipkart continues to grapple with top-level management churn at a time when it is fiercely fighting rivals Amazon and Snapdeal in a three-legged battle for supremacy of the Indian online retail market. For a few weeks now, the industry has been abuzz with news that exGoogler Punit Soni, one of the prized Silicon Valley hires for Flipkart, is on his way out. However, no confirmations have come from the company yet.

Soni, who till recently was chief product officer for the e-tailer, was being paid $1 million annually in fixed salary and steered the push for Flipkart and Myntra becoming app-only. Significantly , though, after the sudden top-level rejig earlier this month, which saw Sachin Bansal stepping down from the CEO's role and Binny Bansal taking over, Soni was left with a not-so-defined role amplifying the noise around his expected departure.

An emailed query sent to Flipkart on Soni's possible exit did not elicit a response.

A source close to the development said Soni has been contemplating quitting Flipkart in the backdrop of the app-only strategy backfiring for the e-tailer.

“Even the launch of Ping, Flipkart's social messaging feature, saw muted response from users, a project Soni had led,“ the person said.Prior to joining Flipkart, Soni was VP of product management at Motorola, after Google acquired the phonemaker.

What's been much talked about is the chasm between the old brass, most of whom have already quit, and the new ly-hired executi ves, especially sin ce Flipkart went on a tear and hired a bunch of highly-paid names from Silicon Valley last year.Among them Peeyush Ranjan, head of engineering and Soni got the most spotlight.

While it is not unusual for high-growth tech companies like Flipkart to go through such a top-level churn, what stands out is the pace at which the old guard has exited the Bangalore-based company .“Getting key executives in a growth phase from outside is expected but may be the timing has not been right for them. On the other side, old employees played a key role in building Flipkart but may be the company outgrew them,“ a senior analyst tracking e-commerce.