Daily Tech Snippet: Monday, February 29th

• Morgan Stanley fund marks down Flipkart stake value by 27%: A mutual fund investor in Flipkart Ltd, India’s largest e-commerce firm, has slashed the value of its holdings by as much as 27%, the latest indication that the investor rush of the past two years into Indian startups has led to unsustainable valuations.Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund Trust valued its stake in Flipkart at $58.9 million as of 31 December, down from $80.6 million in June 2015. The company reported the number late Friday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US stock markets regulator. Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund Trust also cut the value of its stake in other high flying startups including file storage company Dropbox Inc. and data analytics company Palantir.Flipkart was valued at $15 billion when it received $700 million from Tiger Global Management, Qatar Investment Authority and other investors in June. That was its fourth round of fund raising in a year. Its valuation shot up roughly 5 times from $2.5-3 billion in May 2014. Morgan Stanley’s latest estimate implies that the mutual fund currently values Flipkart at $11 billion. Mint reported on 4 February that China’s Alibaba Group is in early talks to buy a stake in Flipkart and increase its holding in Flipkart rival, Snapdeal. The talks are at a very initial stage and the likelihood of a deal is a function of Flipkart’s willingness to offer a discount on its current valuation of $15 billion, Mint had reported then. There are not too many takers for India’s top e-commerce firms at their current valuations, prompting both Flipkart and Snapdeal  to approach Alibaba Group for cash. Early last year, Flipkart set a target of generating annualized gross merchandise value (GMV) of $8 billion by December. However, the company’s current average monthly annualized GMV is roughly $5 billion, Mint reported on 17 February. This number, which includes sales at Flipkart’s unit Myntra, indicates Flipkart missed its internal sales target.

• In ‘Strategic Refocus,’ Troubled Zenefits Lets 250 Employees Go: Zenefits, the troubled benefits software company that three weeks ago fired its founding CEO, said today that it has laid off 250 employees, mostly in its sales recruiting organization. In a memo to employees, CEO David Sacks said the move signals an intention to “rebuild in line with our new company values.” Zenefits, which sells employee health insurance plans alongside free software to administer those plans, was been rocked by disclosures that many of its employees are not properly licensed to sell insurance. The job cuts amount to about 17 percent of the Zenefits workforce. The company has until recently been considered a Silicon Valley high-flyer, having raised $500 million from investors at a valuation of $4.5 billion. From an email from new CEO David Sacks: "We are reducing our headcount by roughly 250 employees, or about 17 percent of total employees. These changes are almost entirely in the Sales organization, with about a dozen employees in Recruiting. Within the Sales organization, we are eliminating the Enterprise team (although some members will be offered other roles). We are also making a large reduction in Sales Development Representatives (SDR), the organization that prospected for the largest accounts.I want to make clear that this is a reduction in force (RIF), meaning that we are not cutting these jobs for performance reasons. We are letting go of many great people today, and it is not their fault. It is no secret that Zenefits grew too fast, stretching both our culture and our controls. This reduction enables us to refocus our strategy, rebuild in line with our new company values, and grow in a controlled way that will be strategic for our business and beneficial for our customers."

• IHOP Is Releasing Special Snapchat Geolocation Filters, but You Have to Visit the Restaurant to Use Them - The Geo-fencing feature is all about engagement: IHOP today announced a Snapchat campaign that targets patrons inside its restaurants. To push its Double-Dipped French Toast, the all-day breakfast brand is essentially using the same custom geo-filters Snapchat introduced to the masses on Monday. But it's working directly with the Los Angeles social app to serve the ad just to IHOP customers. IHOP and Snapchat developed what they are calling "chain geo-filters," location-based dynamic art that can be added to photo and video snaps. When using the app at a restaurant, customers who take a snap will be able to swipe to reveal IHOP-themed creative overlays. Kirk Thompson, IHOP's vp of marketing, told Adweek that his team quietly released its custom Snapchat filter a few days ago, and it's already garnered 3 million views. On why the new promotion is only zeroing in on people already in stores, he explained, "IHOP receives Snapchats from users every day, a lot of them taken while in our restaurant. Introducing customized filters was a great way to further engage with our guests and at the same time extend our brand message when they share that content with their friends."