Snapdeal downs shutters on eSportsBuy.com two months after acquisition

The sports and fitness equipment e-com startup eSportsBuy, recently bought by Snapdeal, has been quietly buried and no longer exists as an independent website.

But this was to be expected as soon after buying the portal for an undisclosed amount, Snapdeal officially launched a sports section on its portal.

At that time, Kunal Bahl, CEO of Snapdeal, told Techcircle.in, "Currently, we will keep both the brands. eSportsBuy will co-exist and its products will be available on Snapdeal as well. But we are still internally discussing what the future course should be."

When asked about the new development, Bahl said that it was the idea (consolidation of operations) all along behind sewing the deal.

eSportsBuy was started in 2011 by IIT Delhi alumni Prateek Agarwal and Amit Monga, and the team was hired to work for Snapdeal post-acquisition. While it was clear all along that Snapdeal had cut an acq-hire, the speed with which it has discontinued the brand speaks about the firm's confidence in guiding consumers to buy products from its own site. We have expected the eSportsBuy site to redirect to Snapdeal in the near term, but the site appears to be inactive as of now, which suggests it has been shut down.

Consolidation is the big trend for e-com firms in the current year. Startups, including those with novel ideas but unable to raise capital for further expansion, have resorted to selling out to established and well-funded firms. We have seen Flipkart buying Letsbuy, Yebhi.com acquiring the online fashion jewellery shop Stylishyou and Healthkart buying out Madeinhealth.com. At the same time, a number of e-com sites have quietly shut shop on their own (more on that here).