The numbers landed with a thud. Walmart’s international business, Q3 FY26. Profits down. The culprit? A hefty $700 million charge. Tied to PhonePe.
PhonePe, the digital payments firm, is inching closer to an IPO. This means, of course, the dance of stock options. Employee Stock Options, or ESOPs, to be precise. And Walmart, a major investor, felt the impact.
It’s a familiar story, played out across the startup landscape. Companies gearing up for public offerings. Rewarding employees. And the parent company, in this case, Walmart, absorbing the costs.
The Inc42 report, published recently, lays it out. The September quarter. A sharp drop. The specifics? ESOP compensation. All related to PhonePe’s IPO plans.
The air in the Walmart investor relations office must be… interesting. Not a crisis, perhaps. More like a calculated pause. A deep breath before the next climb.
“We are committed to supporting PhonePe’s growth,” a Walmart spokesperson might say, if pressed. (Speculation, of course, but the script writes itself.)
The strategic play is clear. Invest in the future. Weather the short-term hit. The long game: a successful PhonePe IPO, and a return on investment that justifies the current expense.
But in the meantime? The market reacts. Analysts recalculate. And the $700 million figure hangs in the air, a reminder of the high stakes of the tech IPO game. The pressure is on.
What happens next? PhonePe’s IPO timeline remains a key question. And Walmart’s next quarterly report will be watched with extra scrutiny. The market awaits.
