Nutanix, the company driving VMware crazy, just made a brilliant acquisition

Nutanix officially confirmed that it bought a startup called PernixData.

News of the deal had leaked a few weeks ago when PernixData's outgoing CTO Frank Denneman told The Register's Chris Mellor that the sale was already a done deal.

This is a brilliant move by Nutanix and a curious one by PernixData's leadership.

It's brilliant for Nutanix for a bunch of reasons. For one, Nutanix has nabbed a key person familiar with the tech of its biggest rival.

Nutanix helped usher in a new computer storage market known as "hyperconverged," which combines storage along with compute power and the special software that manages computers called a hypervisor.

VMware is the biggest maker of hypervisors - that's its flagship, bread-and-butter product - although Microsoft also has its own, as does Red Hat, Citrix, others.

Nutanix's products works with VMware's hypervisor, of course, but the company also built its own to take on VMware head on, a hypervisor product known as Acropolis.

Given Nutanix's enormous popularity with businesses, this was a tricky move on Nutanix's part to unseat the hypervisor king, so much so that VMware has tried to counter-punch and release its own hyperconverged storage product, known as EVO:RAIL. It didn't sell well and The Reg reported in February that VMware had quietly shelved EVO:RAIL in favor of different storage software.

One of the co-founders of PernixData, Satyam Vaghani, was the early employee of VMware that built some of VMware's key storage technology and then ran VMware's storage business. (Storage giant EMC grew so nervous by these projects, it acquired a controlling interest in 2003 for about $635 million.)

So bringing Vaghani into the Nutanix fold is a big score.

Meanwhile PernixData's other founder, Poojan Kumarwas a key engineer who developed Oracle's compute and storage product, Exadata, which has become a multi-billion product for Oracle.

A not-so-big exit?
Meanwhile, word was that PernixData may have been running low on cash.

The startup makes software that allows existing flash storage drives to work faster and store more stuff. Instead of endlessly buying more storage, it lets a company use the storage it has more efficiently. It works with VMware's hypervisor. Now it will work with Acropolis.
PernixData has nabbed about 800 customers. But even so, the software was considered more like a storage feature than a product that could evolve to become the basis of a giant tech company.

So in this tougher venture environment in 2016, we can see why PernixData may have struggled to raise more money to fund growth.

The curious part is the sale: how much Nutanix paid for it. Terms of the deal were not announced, and no one is reporting a whisper number.

PernixData raised $62 million in three rounds with its last a $35 million round led by Menlo Ventures in 2014.

Meanwhile, Nutanix appeared to be having its own form of cash problems. It was expected to have completed its IPO by now, but the IPO has stalled during this harsh IPO year where investors have lost their taste for unprofitable, highly valued tech startups burning through loads of cash.

In May, Nutanix took out a $75 million loan from Goldman Sachs that Nutanix CFO characterized as "insurance" while waiting to IPO.

So the likelihood is that, whatever Nutanix paid, it wasn't a massive all-cash amount.

That said, if PernixData's revenue growth is good, that could help Nutanix spiffy up its financials and convince public investors to bite at its stock at a price that would justify the $2 billion valuation its venture investors once gave it.

Nutanix also bought another startup, Calm.io, which made software to support the new DevOps and containers trends. Calm.io had raised about $4 million, according to its Crunchbase profile.

The Reg is reporting that the Calm.io deal was the one referenced in a Nutanix S1 amended filing, which disclosed 528,517 shares and $1.2m in cash.

Courtesy: BusinessInsider

Ratan Tata, Nandan Nilekani to start microfinance company

Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, Vijay Kelkar, former finance secretary and chairman of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, and Nandan Nilekani, co-founder of Infosys Ltd and the architect of Aadhaar, are joining hands to start a microfinance institution (MFI).

Named Avanti Finance, the company, a “technology-enabled financial inclusion vehicle”, will focus on “delivering affordable and timely credit to under-served and un-served segments in India”, said a statement from Tata Trusts.

Avanti will apply to the Reserve Bank of India for registration and is expected to start operations before the end of the financial year, added the statement.

Tata and Nilekani are investing in setting up this microfinancier from their respective philanthropic capital and “any gains will be reinvested in philanthropic causes”, said the statement.

R. Venkataramanan, managing trustee of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, will be the fourth founding director. A senior leadership is already in place, the release said without providing any details.

Tata, who retired as chairman of Tata Sons in December 2012, has spent almost two years investing his personal wealth directly in technology start-ups both in India and overseas through RNT Associates. He has invested in firms such as Snapdeal (Jasper Infotech Pvt. Ltd), online furniture store Urban Ladder (Home Décor Solutions Pvt. Ltd), cab-hailing service Ola (ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd) and online lingerie store Zivame (Actoserba Active Wholesale Pvt. Ltd).

Nilekani declined comment.

Micro-lending will be “one of the activities”, said a person directly involved in the venture, on condition of anonymity. This project is “specifically using technology platforms for making available finance at low costs to the bottom of the pyramid”.

The Tata Trusts statement said that “the aim is to leverage on the social sector presence of Tata Trusts and other like-minded partners and the rapidly evolving India Stack (Jan Dhan-Aadhar-Mobile), UPI (unified payments interface) and payments bank ecosystem. Avanti would use this ecosystem and will innovate on product design in consonance with the indigenous needs, to deliver seamlessly for the end consumer”.

According to RBI guidelines, a MFI should have a minimum net owned fund of Rs.5 crore. Net owned fund includes paid-up equity capital, free reserves, balance in share premium account and capital reserves.

The loan portfolio of MFIs stood at Rs.53,233 crore at the end of March, up 84% from a year ago, according to data from the Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN), a self-regulatory organization for the industry.

“Industry and thought leaders like Ratan Tata and Nandan Nilekani venturing into microfinance is indeed exciting news. It underscores the fact that microfinance has got mainstreamed,” said Alok Prasad, former chief executive officer of MFIN. “Use of technology and fully leveraging the power of Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile trinity will, among other things, bring down operating costs.”

Technology will help microfinance companies reduce their cost of operations and ensure that the end-beneficiaries get loans at a lower price. Under norms issued last year, the central bank had said that microfinance companies with loan books worth Rs.100 crore and above will have to maintain a 10% cap on the margin they charge customers, over and above their cost of borrowing. For microfinance companies with loan books over Rs.100 crore, the cap is set at 12%.

“The promoters strongly believe that the institutional inequalities and information asymmetries are depriving the target customer segment of access to affordable credit. The target customer segment over the last few years has displayed very low delinquency rates compared to any other customer segment, but still is charged the highest rate of interest,” said the statement from Tata Trusts.

Courtesy : LiveMint

Rackspace to go private after $4.3B acquisition by private equity firm Apollo

Rackspace, which is still best known as a hosting company even as it has expanded aggressively into offering services for businesses that use other platforms, went public in 2008. Now, however, it’s going private again after accepting a $4.3 billion offer (or $32 per share) in cash from private equity firm Apollo Global Management. The deal is still subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in the last quarter of this year.

Over the last few years, it became increasingly clear that Rackspace wasn’t going to be able to compete with the likes of AWS, Google and Microsoft in the cloud space, despite getting an early start in this business. The company then turned toward offering managed hosting services with a strong focus on helping enterprises manage both their private clouds and cloud deployments on the likes of AWS and Azure. Rackspace, together with NASA, also founded the open source OpenStack project, which provides enterprises with the building blocks for setting up their own private clouds (which it will also happily manage for its customers). Rackspace itself is one of the largest OpenStack users in its public cloud, too.

This move toward becoming more of a services company has worked reasonably well and Rackspace’s quarterly results have pointed upwards for the last few years. That slow but steady growth, however, wasn’t rewarded by Wall Street, with the company’s stock recently trading as low as $16.76, down from almost $80 back in 2013 and a high of close to $55 in early 2015. That made the company an obvious candidate for going private again with the help of a private equity company like Apollo.

“We are presented with a significant opportunity today as mainstream companies move their computing out of corporate data centers and into multi-cloud models,” said Taylor Rhodes, president and CEO of Rackspace, in a canned statement today. “Apollo and its partners take a patient, value-oriented approach to their funds’ investments, and value Rackspace’s strategy and unique culture. This is an exciting transaction for Rackspace and we look forward to working closely together.”

It remains to be seen how Apollo will manage Rackspace and how patient it will be, but there may be an upside for the company here as it will be able to grow and continue its transformation at its own pace.

Courtesy : Techcrunch

Indore's EngineerBabu Raises Funding From Scale Ventures

Indore-based B2B IT service aggregator company EngineerBabu has raised an undisclosed amount in a Seed round of funding led by Scale Ventures.

The raised funds will be infused in expanding its client base in US, China, Japan and other potential countries.

This is Scale Ventures’ first investment. Founded by the ex-CEO of Indianroots, Rahul Narvekar and Rathi scion, Nilesh Rathi – Scale Ventures was announced last week. The fund has also acquired the portfolio of Delhi-based Guerrilla Ventures.

EngineerBabu was launched in 2014 by Mayank Pratap and Aditi Chaurasia. Avdhesh Pratap Solanki was later roped in as the third co-founder. The founders call themselves as Alibaba for IT services and aims to bridge the prevalent demand and supply gaps in the IT service industry. Initially, started as a product oriented company, EngineerBabu later shifted its focus on delivering services to clients. It offers services such as web development, mobile app development, web designing, logo designing, and digital marketing services.

As explained by Aditi further, “Indian IT industry is currently valued at $143 Bn. Although millions of projects are outsourced to India on a daily basis, the majority of leads go unconverted. Reason – the companies are able to reach only a few major IT service providing companies and the startups even with an excellent domain expertise lag behind. EngineerBabu aims to bridge this gap.”

Courtesy: INC42

Invision acquires Easee, an animation tool for designers

InVision, the company behind some of the best design tools and Sketch plugins around, have acquired Web animation tool Easee and hired its creator, Steven Fabre.

It’s a good old-fashioned acquihire; Fabre will join the InVision team, but will be working on “other projects.” Easee will also remain available for everyone to use, says InVision’s founder Clark Valberg:

According to Fabre, Easee may not be updated as a standalone tool, but we’d speculate similar functionality is coming to InVision (possibly Craft) at some point.

InVision has been actively building its suite of tools out for the growing Sketch community of designers and developers. In addition to Easee, InVision has Silver Flows, Waybury and its Craft suite of tools. It’s not clear how Easee may fit into InVision’s mix, but it’s a welcome addition.

Courtesy : Thenextweb

IoT will impact 120,000 jobs in India by 2021

Even as Indian IT firms corner a large chunk of the market that arises from services related to the internet-of-things, the country will lose about 69,000 jobs until 2021 due to the adoption of the technology, a report by consulting firm Zinnov said.

This number is over and above the hundreds of thousands of jobs that experts say will be lost due to automation in IT and will predominantly impact unskilled and blue-collar workers.

"Internet-of-things technology will impact 120,000 jobs in the country by 2021. 94,000 jobs will be eliminated, and 25,000 jobs will be created in the five-year period," Hardik Tiwari, engagement lead at Zinnov.

Internet-of-things (IoT) is the term used to describe the addition of sensors and chips to machinery which allows them to the monitored and controlled over the internet.

People working in areas such as office administration, support staff and those in maintenance will see their roles being taken over by technology. The new jobs created will be IoT product managers, robot co-ordinators, industrial programmers and network engineers.

Newer technologies are expected to constrict job supply in some areas. In July, research firm HfS predicted that India's IT services industry would lose 6.4 lakh "lowskilled" jobs to automation in the next five years. The HfS report stated that though "low-skilled" jobs will fall by 30%, "mediumskilled" jobs will increase by 8% and high-skilled jobs will rise by 56%.

But despite the overall job losses, Indian firms are expected to benefit from adoption of IoT.

Indian firms currently have about 40% of the addressed IoT services market a share that is expected to rise to 44% by 2021, as they boost their capabilities through acquisitions.

"There is a lot of demand from service providers for niche internet-for-things players with intellectual property and platforms. This will help increase the industry's market share," Tiwari said.

But the addressed market of $2.8 billion, currently, is just a fraction of the overall IoT services market of $66 billion, as companies are not as yet outsourcing their spend. The addressed market is expected to reach $7.3 billion in 2021.

The Indian domestic market contributes $1.6 billion to the overall IoT market, the report said, and is expected to grow to $3.8 billion in the next five years. Indian corporates are leading the charge in spending on IoT, accounting for 80% of the spend.

The government contributes just 20% to the domestic IoT market. ET has reported that the technology is being used to bring transparency to the scam-hit iron ore sector in Goa and in sandmining in states like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Courtesy : Ecnomictimes

Birla Corp completes acquisition of Anil Ambani's Reliance Cement at Rs 4,800 crore

Birla Corporation on Monday said it has completed acquisition of Anil Ambani's cement business, a wholly-owned arm of flagship Reliance Infrastructure, for an enterprise valuation of about Rs 4,800 crore.

Following this, Reliance Infrastructure's (Rinfra) cement arm Reliance Cement Company Private Limited (RCCPL) is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Birla CorporationBSE -0.85 %. The acquisition, which catapults the company's cement production capacity to 15.4 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) from 9.8 mtpa, has been funded through existing cash reserves and incremental debt. The company's stock closed at Rs 680.95 a share on the Bombay Stock Exchange, up by Rs 5.80 over Friday's closing price of Rs 675.15.

"Since Rinfra has mineral concessions in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, Birla Corp hopes to utilise the same by creating new capacities in the near future," sources close to the Lodha family said.

The mining lease at Mukutban would enable the company to set up a clinkerisation unit of 3 MT in the foreseeable future, the source added.

Elaborating further, Birla Corp chairman Harsh V Lodha said, the company will be able to enhance its presence in the profitable western market by expansion of the Mukutban operations.

"The economies of scale and synergies would help the company invest in brand, channel, manufacturing, product and marketing innovations for creating greater value for all stakeholders. This apart, there is scope for further optimisation of the operation of Reliance Cement that would yield substantial benefit to the company.

RCCPL has an integrated cement capacity of 5.08 mtpa at Maihar (Madhya Pradesh) and Kundanganj (Uttar Pradesh) and a grinding unit of 0.5 mtpa at Butiburi (Maharashtra).

Rinfra plans to use the entire proceeds to reduce its debt in sync with its plan to monetise cement, roads and Mumbai power businesses to reduce its overall debt of Rs 15,500 crore as on March 31, 2016, the company stated in its mediastatement.

With an eye to turn Rinfra debt-free on a standalone basis by 2017, the company's management has been actively pursuing a series of asset sales. The company has been selling off capital-intensive businesses like cement and roads and looking to rope in partners for its Mumbai electricity distribution arm in an attempt to reduce debt and focus more on new, capital-light, high RoE defence business. It recently agreed to sell off its cement business to Birla Corp for Rs 4800 crore and has signed a non-binding term sheet to sell 49 % in its Mumbai power business to the Canadian pension fund Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments).

Referring to the company's debt reduction strategy, Rinfra CEO Lalit Jalan said, the company hopes to clinch the road deal the next three months and consummate the same in the current financial year 2016-17.

Courtesy : Ecnomictimes.Indiatimes

ScribbleLive acquires SEO company LinkDex

Content marketing company ScribbleLive announced today that it has acquired Linkdex.

In a blog post, ScribbleLive’s Geoffrey Gualano said the deal will combine his company’s content marketing platform with Linkdex’s capabilities in search engine optimization:

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The company say Linkdex CEO Mark Smith will continue leading his 40-person team as a division within ScribbleLive.

Linkdex has raised more than $9 million in funding from investors including Amadeus Capital Partners.

Courtesy : TechCrunch

Pinterest acquires Instapaper to improve article discovery

Pinterest is making investments to help users discover and save articles on its visual search engine. The company announced on Tuesday that it has acquired Instapaper, the online bookmarking service that was created by Tumblr cofounder Marco Arment. In contrast to previous deals, this time Pinterest has picked up both the technology and a majority of the team in its move to boost content sharing on the service.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Pinterest said that Instapaper will continue to operate as a separate app, adding that “a majority” of Instapaper’s three-person team will be joining Pinterest. One casualty of this acquisition: Instapaper’s developer product, Instaparser, which will be shut down on November 1, 2016.

Founded by Arment in 2008, Instapaper served as an app that let users shelve articles to read at their leisure. It competed against the likes of Pocket, Flipboard, Evernote (at one point), and Readability. With a “Read Later” bookmarklet, users could select any webpage and have it saved to Instapaper to read later across any device. The service is available on iOS, Android, and Kindle devices.

Five years later, however, Arment sold a majority share in Instapaper to Betaworks, claiming that the service had become too big for him to manage alone. The deal was structured to keep Instapaper around for as long as possible, and Arment even remained on as an adviser. During this time, the company explained that it had rewritten its backend, overhauled its mobile and web clients, improved search, and launched highlights, text-to-speech, and speed reading features for the product.

Fast forward to today, and the service is owned by Pinterest. “Instapaper provides a compelling source for news-based content, and we’re excited to take those learnings to Pinterest’s discovery products,” Instapaper said in a blog post. “We’ll also be experimenting with using our parsing technology for certain Rich Pin types.” Users should not experience any disruptions with Instapaper as a result of the deal.

The benefit for Pinterest is that it is acquiring a team that specializes in saving content from the web to an app, something that millions of people do on Pinterest daily. Pinterest does have a save button that encourages users to push content to the service, but it’s likely Instapaper will assist in the distribution of articles and information from publishers. It will likely also improve indexing and recommendations, especially as Pinterest invests in how pins and videos are distributed.

Instapaper’s team will move from their offices in New York City to San Francisco. As mentioned earlier, Instaparser is being shut down. The company is no longer accepting signups for new users and has halted billing for existing customers. The service will be terminated in November.

Brian Donohue, Instapaper’s chief executive, said in a statement: “The missions of Instapaper and Pinterest are aligned in helping people easily save content, and we’re excited to join forces. The Pinterest team is working on unique technical challenges, and their collective skill will add tremendous value to Instapaper. Additionally, I’m personally looking forward to working on new projects and integrations within Pinterest.”

Courtesy : VentureBeat

Microsoft acquires automated meeting scheduling app Genee to make Office 365 smarter

Microsoft has announced that it’s acquired Genee, a productivity app that launched in beta last year and focused on automating the task of scheduling meetings. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Genee allowed users to set up meetings without having to consult a calendar. Once Genee was CCed on an email asking a contact for a meeting, the app would email them with options based on your availability and preferences and add the appointment to your schedule. It’s certainly not the only such service to do this; others like x.ai and Clara offer similar capabilities.

Microsoft noted that the Genee team will join the Office 365 fold to help “further our ambition to bring intelligence into every digital experience.” It seems like the obvious move would be to integrate Genee’s meeting scheduling service into Outlook, but Microsoft hasn’t specified whether that’s on the cards.

The Redmond giant has been doubling down on productivity apps in the past couple of years: Earlier this year it acquired professional social network LinkedIn; in 2015, it bought to-do tool Wunderlist, the popular Sunrise calendar, mobile team chat service Talko and MileIQ, a mileage-tracking app; in 2014, it snapped up email app Acompli.

Genee will shut down its own service on September 1; it will stop sending out reminders, but all existing entries in your calendar created by Genee will remain.

Courtesy : thenextweb.com

Apple Acquires Personal Health Data Startup Gliimpse

Apple's ambitions in the health sector continue to expand, with its digital health team making its first known acquisition—personal health data startup Gliimpse, Fast Company has learned.

Silicon Valley-based Gliimpse has built a personal health data platform that enables any American to collect, personalize, and share a picture of their health data. The company was started in 2013 by Anil Sethi and Karthik Hariharan. Sethi is a serial entrepreneur who has spent the past decade working with health startups, after taking his company Sequoia Software public in 2000. He got his start as a systems engineer at Apple in the late 1980s.

The acquisition happened earlier this year, but Apple has been characteristically quiet about it. The company has now confirmed the purchase, saying: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans."

According to Sethi's LinkedIn page, Gliimpse—like many startups—was born of a personal need. Sethi says that he's followed his sister through her battle with breast cancer and discovered firsthand how challenging it is to acquire and manage your personal health data.

The acquisition will bolster Apple’s efforts in digital health. In recent years, Apple has delved into the sector with a range of services (HealthKit, CareKit, and ResearchKit) that allow patients, clinicians, and researchers to access important health and wellness data via a range of mobile devices. That's in line with Gliimpse's mission of uniting disparate streams of health information.

What stands out about the deal is that Gliimpse is intended for patients with diseases like cancer and diabetes. Apple recently hired a top pediatric endocrinologist who developed a HealthKit app for teens with Type 1 diabetes, signaling an increased interest in applications for chronically ill users.

It's unlikely that this acquisition will bring Apple's health technologies under the purview of federal regulators. CEO Tim Cook recently told Fast Company in an interview that he sees a major business opportunity for the company in the non-regulated side of health care: "So if you don’t care about reimbursement, which we have the privilege of doing, that may even make the smartphone market look small."

It's hard to tell how Apple will use the technology—in previous cases, the technology it has acquired from another company often ends up looking very different when it finally makes it into a product.

So far, the acquisition has not been announced on LinkedIn, or on the company's website.

Courtesy : Fastcompany.com

Chinese Consortium Acquires Media.Net For $900 Million In Third-Largest Ever AdTech Deal

AdTech pioneer Media.net, has been acquired by a Chinese consortium from serial internet entrepreneur Divyank Turakhia’s Starbuster TMT Investments in an all-cash transaction of $900 million.

The Consortium is led by Zhiyong Zhang, Chairman of Beijing Miteno Communication Technology, a technology, media and telecom (TMT) business listed on the GEM Board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. This completes the first step toward Media.net being acquired by, and integrated into, Beijing-based Miteno.

Media.net is a large, growing and profitable business with annual revenues of $232 million. It currently manages more than $450 million of annual advertising revenue via its platform, more than 50% of which is generated from mobile users.

More than 90% of Media.net’s total revenue comes from the U.S. With seven offices worldwide, including global headquarters in Dubai, and U.S. headquarters in New York City, the company has more than 800 employees.

“Our team has spent the last several years putting together one of the most comprehensive platforms for AdTech, and we are just getting started. The acquisition will enable us to be an even greater platform for innovation and investment on a global scale,” said Divyank Turakhia, Media.net’s founder and CEO.

A serial entrepreneur with a proven track record of performance, Turakhia has had considerable success with other exits. In 2014, Endurance International Group bought four brands that he co-founded with his brother, Bhavin Turakhia, for approximately $160 million.

He started his first internet business in 1996 at the age of 14, made his first million at 18, first $100 million at 23, and now crossed his first $1 billion at the age of 34.

Courtesy : Forbes.com

PropTiger acquires 3DPhy to enhance its 3D capabilities

Online real estate advisor PropTiger on Thursday announced that it had acquired Gurgaon-based startup 3DPhy, which works in the field of Virtual and Augmented Reality, and 3D visualisations, for an undisclosed amount. With this acquisition, PropTiger aims to advance its technological platform to further enhance its ‘hi-tech marketing’ solutions for developers.

Based in Noida, PropTiger was founded in 2011 by the experienced trio of Dhruv Agarwala, Kartik Varma and Prashan Agarwal, who are alumni of Harvard Business School, IIT and ISB respectively. As an Indian online real estate firm, PropTiger aims to offer home buyers a one-stop platform that allows users to search for homes, shortlist, visit, finalise and arrange home loans or legal services and, finally, buy the property. As an advisory firm, it also offers advice on buying, selling and investing in real estate in India. Since its inception, PropTiger claims to have sold homes worth more than Rs 10,000 crore to over 15,000 customers.

In November 2014, PropTiger.com had raised an estimated $30 million in funding in a round led by News Corp, with participation from SAIF Partners, Accel Partners and Horizen Ventures. The company also went on to acquire Makaan.com and interactive technology firm OoBi, to give home buyers better access to a full stack of services – from online search to assistance with transactions.

Founded by a group of IIT Kharagpur alumni – Amit Shekhar, Rajeev Kumar, Uttam Kumar and Raghvendra Polinki, 3Dphy creates and simulates a near-real experience for prospective buyers through 360-degree panoramas and virtual tours. These tools allow home buyers to not just “see” the surroundings, but also “walk” in them and effectively judge the sizes, shapes, spaces and dimensions.
The Indian real estate sector has witnessed growth, market corrections and consolidations in the last two years. In January 2016, Quikr announced that it had acquired CommonFloor for an undisclosed amount to integrate it with its offering 'Quikr Homes'. Then there are other well funded players like SoftBank-backed Housing.com and real estate advisory firm Squareyards, which had claimed to have over 100 crores in revenue in September 2015. More recently in June 2016, YourStory learnt from multiple sources that Housing was in talks to merge with Sqaureyards.

Through the acquisition, PropTiger aims to bring together their complementary technology platforms and capabilities to address its current technological gaps and to better support customers in decision-making. By providing end-to-end technology and consulting solutions, PropTiger intends to offer greater flexibility and choice, and improved user experience for its customers.

Dhruv, CEO, PropTiger.com and makaan.com, believes that the acquisition will help PropTiger make the home search experience more immersive.PropTiger envisions use cases where 3DPhy's technology will enable builders and brokers to showcase multiple properties over phones, laptops, tablets or head-mounted devices.

Courtesy : YourStory.com

BSNL, Microsoft sign MoU to offer IT solutions

BSNL and Microsoft India have announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to offer telecom and IT solutions for big businesses to meet the demand for IT and cloud services. This will help audio and video needs of BSNL's enterprise customers, including government organisations. Notably, BSNL has large shares in landline network, including leased line connectivity to various enterprises.

Read More : ANINews

Tech tremors: IBM, HP, Oracle & Dell may announce layoffs

Cisco Systems Inc's announcement on Wednesday that it plans to lay off 5,500 employees is unlikely to be the last round of Silicon Valley pink slips as hardware companies struggle to keep up with rapid technology shifts, analysts and recruiters said.

Companies that traditionally have made most of their money selling computers, chips, servers, routers and other equipment are especially vulnerable, analysts say, as mobile applications and cloud computing become increasingly important.

The Cisco layoffs come in the wake of Intel's announcement in April that it was laying off 12,000 workers. Dell Inc said in January it had shed 10,000 jobs and is expected to make further cuts after it closes a $67 billion deal to acquire data storage company EMC Corp.

So far this year, technology companies in the United States have shed about 63,000 jobs, according to outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

"The hi-tech industry is going through a serious deconstruction," said Trip Chowdhry, an analyst at Global Equities Research. "There is more pain to come."

Chowdhry said he expects job cuts to rise drastically as more companies subscribe to "super cloud" services from the likes of Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp. These services manage hardware, software, networks and databases and eliminate the need for workers to manage various technology layers, Chowdhry said.

In January, Chowdhry estimated that layoffs in the tech industry would hit 330,000 this year. On Wednesday, he said he had raised his estimate to 370,000. Some other analysts said that forecast was too bleak.

IBM Corp, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co, Oracle Corp and Dell Inc could be the next to shed workers, analysts said.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Dell and Oracle declined comment and IBM could not be immediately reached for comment.


'TREMORS OF CHANGE'

"Tech incumbents are all bracing for the tremors of change. said Glenn O'Donnell, an analyst at Forrester Research. "We fully expect a lot of collateral damage as this plays out - not just with Cisco."

Cisco and other old-guard technology companies have been pursuing a challenging shift to software-oriented services. Margins in software services are higher than hardware because they bring recurring revenue and there are "fewer people involved on the cost side," said Roger Kay, an analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates.

Courtesy : Businesstoday.in

Urjit Patel to take over from Raghuram Rajan as RBI Governor

Prime Minister Narendra Modi appointed Urjit Patel as the 24th governor of the Reserve Bank of India ending months of speculation about the successor to the high profile Raghuram Rajan, signaling that prudent monetary policy will continue to be the norm calming investors.

Patel, the 52-year old deputy governor, will have a three year term beginning September like Rajan, and the government said that the for the first time a `systematic approach and an objective mechanism' was put in place for the appointment of the governor.

"The appointments committee of the cabinet (ACC) has approved the appointment of Dr Urjit R Patel as Governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for a period of three years w.e.f. from 04.9.2016," the government said in a statement

Patel rose to fame with the recommendation of inflation targeting for the monetary policy to have any credibility. He headed the committee appointed by Rajan to suggest a monetary policy framework. It recommended that RBI should aim to contain inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index at 4% in a band of 2 percentage points on either side. The government accepted those recommendations and recently gave it a legal backing too.

"Appointment of Urjit Patel comes as a welcome move,'' says Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairman of State Bank of Indial. ``Dr. Patel has been at the helm of institutionalising the inflation targeting regime in the monetary policy framework. His appointment signals continuity of policy intent, both on part of government and the RBI.'"

Patel has been guiding the monetary policy as a deputy governor for the past three and a half years after succeeding Subir Gokarn. In fact, he had been critical of the previous Governor D. Subbarao's policy on interest rates that led to prices rising at double digits.

The government which has institutionalized monetary policy with the consent to set up the Monetary Policy Committee of six members instead of just the governor, has been regularizing the appointments on the basis of the recommendations of the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Committee headed by Justice B. Srikrishna.

"For the first time, a systematic approach and an objective mechanism has been put in place," the statement said while adding that the appointment was made based on the recommendation of the six-member Financial Sector Regulatory Appointments Search Committee (FSRASC).

The shortlist of names considered by the committee included department of economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das, chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian, former deputy governor Subir Gokarn, former World Bank chief economist Kaushik Basu and Dr. Patel, a person privy to the developments told ET.

The committee had met twice to discuss all the possible names that can be considered for this assignment and had submitted a short panel of names to the ACC, the statement said.

The government is also in the process of selecting three of is representatives on the six-member monetary policy committee (MPC) that will set interest rates going ahead.

Read more at: Ecnomic Times

Gawker.com to end operations next week after nearly 14 years of operation

Gawker.com said Thursday it will shut down next week after nearly 14 years of operation.

The company said outgoing CEO Nick Denton made the announcement to staffers on Thursday afternoon.

Gawker also said that the decision "comes days after Univision successfully bid $135 million for Gawker Media's six other websites, and four months after the Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel revealed his clandestine legal campaign against the company."

Univision later announced that it will acquire Gizmodo, Jalopnik, Jezebel, Deadspin, Lifehacker and Kotaku, but that it "will not be operating the Gawker.com site."

"Desirable though the other properties are, we have not been able to find a single media company or investor willing also to take on Gawker.com. The campaign being mounted against its editorial ethos and former writers has made it too risky. I can understand the caution," Denton said in his staff memo.

Earlier this week, Denton told CNBC that Gawker "employees are protected and will continue their work under new ownership" and that the company "could not have picked an acquirer more devoted to vibrant journalism."

The company said near-term plans for what to do with Gawker.com's coverage and archives have not been finalized.

Nine years ago, Gawker outed Thiel as gay. Thiel has acknowledged he funded lawsuits against Gawker, including spending about $10 million on one by wrestler Hulk Hogan that led to a $140 million judgment against Gawker.

Denton said that Gawker's bloggers "have introduced a new style of journalism, sometimes enthusiastic, sometimes snarky, but always authentic."

"We connect with a skeptical and media-savvy generation by giving them the real story, the version that journalists used to keep to themselves," he said.

Denton ended his memo by saying that Gawker.com will "live on in legend" and quoting the film "Blade Runner":

"As the short-lived killer android is told in Blade Runner: 'The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and you have burned so very very brightly.'"

Courtesy : CNBC.Com

Trai increases mobile Internet data packs validity to 1-year from 90 days

Telecom regulator Trai Friday permitted increase of validity for mobile data packs to 365 days, from the current up to 90 days, to boost usage by marginal consumers and also attract first-time Internet users.

"Requests were received in Trai seeking longer validity for data packs (that is Special Tariff Vouchers with only data benefits) primarily to address the concern of marginal consumers of wireless Internet who prefer lower denomination data packs with longer validity," Trai said.

At present, a company can issue recharge voucher, which can be valid for a maximum 90 days. If a consumer fails to use up mobile Internet data purchased through the voucher within the specified period, the unused data lapses.

Trai said the present regulatory regime allows "telecom service providers to offer data services in the form of Special Tariff Voucher (STV) either exclusively or in combination with other tariff items with a maximum permitted validity of 90 days".

"After undertaking a consultation process, Trai has notified the 10th amendment to the TCPR (Telecom Consumers Protection Regulations) permitting the maximum validity of 365 days for data-only STVs instead of prevailing maximum validity of 90 days," it added.

Courtesy : Business-Standard

Microsoft to release two Windows 10 updates in 2017

Technology giant Microsoft has announced that it would roll out two major updates for Windows 10 next year after releasing a third and final update for 2016.

"Windows 10, version 1607 is our third Windows 10 feature update released. Based on feedback from organisations moving to Windows 10, this will be our last feature update for 2016, with two additional feature updates expected in 2017," the company wrote in a blog on Saturday.

According to Windows Central, while the first major update for 2017 – codenamed Redstone 2 – would release in the early part of 2017, the second one – codenamed Redstone 3 – might be released in 2017 summer.

This update pattern is similar to the one that the Threshold update wave followed.

Much like Threshold 2 was to Threshold 1, Redstone 3 is likely to be a much smaller update compared to Redstone 2.

Microsoft is currently in the middle of Redstone 2 development with the latest internal builds now being compiled around the 14900 range, the report said.

Courtesy : Business-Standard

India to have 730 million internet users by 2020: Report

India is expected to have 730 million internet users by 2020, with more than seven out of 10 new users emerging from rural areas, said a new report by software industry lobby NASSCOM and Akamai Technologies, Inc on Wednesday.

Currently, India has over 400 million internet users. While 75% of next 300 million users will be those living in rural India, the equal number of new Internet users will consume data in local languages, it said.

India, which already has second largest internet user base after China, will remain the fastest-growing internet market, the report said. Globally, by 2020, more than half the population will have access to internet, with total user base reaching 4.170 billion.

“India’s internet consumption has already exceeded USA to become No. 2 globally. By 2020, the internet is expected to penetrate deeper in the hinterlands of the country, helping to create more opportunities for everyone,” said R Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM.

The rapid growth of the internet, the report notes, will catapult the growth of sector including e-commerce, travel and hospitality, public sector, financial technology and media.

 “With the rise of digital natives and the increased adoption of smartphones, Internet penetration in India will stretch beyond the large cities, as more services and devices come online. This is also a great opportunity for enterprises to harness the power of the Internet to innovate and scale operations,” said Sidharth Malik, Vice President and Managing Director, India, Akamai Technologies.

According to the report, the overall e-commerce market in India is valued $17 billion in FY 2016. By 2020, India will have an estimated 702 million smart phones in use which will emerge as the preferred device for shopping, accounting for 70% of total online shopping, the report said.  As for the travel sector, 50% of travel transactions will be online by 2020. Another key impact of rapidly growing internet will be on financial technology (Fintech) segment, which is expected to grow 1.7x between 2015 and 2020.

"In times to come, while mobile will be a key access device, larger devices will continue to be important in areas like education and business," the report said. "Multiple stakeholders will need to work in tandem to bring the next generation of Internet users (rural based, mobile centric, local language focused) online in India.”

Courtesy: Business-Standard

Cognizant acquires Toronto-based Idea Couture

Cognizant on Thursday announced the acquisition of Idea Couture, a privately-held firm that offers a broad range of digital innovation, strategy, design and technology services. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Based in Toronto, and with offices in the US, Europe and Latin America, the firm has more than 170 social scientists, strategists, anthropologists, user experience experts, designers, and connected product developers who serve leading companies across multiple industries, including: Samsung, PepsiCo, Cox, Citi Ventures, Kroger, ConAgra Foods and others.

New generation of digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, mobility, business analytics, cloud services and the Internet of Things are disrupting every industry. Enterprises are looking to understand and apply these next-generation technologies to front office customer experience, middle office business process and back office IT systems, reshaping how they interact with customers, employees, partners and others in the digital economy.

“To help clients succeed in this new economy, Cognizant Digital Works brings together human insight, strategy, design, technology, and industry expertise to create innovative solutions at enterprise scale. Idea Couture, which will become a part of Cognizant Digital Works, specialises in designing and prototyping products, services and business models that take advantage of the latest technologies,” said the company.

“Idea Couture has a track record of success in managed innovation — including rapidly envisioning, designing and prototyping digital solutions — to help companies create connected products, engage customers and deploy new business models for growth and competitive advantage,” said Gajen Kandiah, executive vice-president, Cognizant Digital Works. “The Idea Couture team’s capabilities accelerate our ability to help clients transform their customer experiences, core business processes, partner relationships and supporting systems.”

“Building on our recently announced partnership with ReD Associates, this acquisition further advances our strategy to bring together world-class capabilities in behavioral insight, strategy, design, and technology to deliver innovative and impactful solutions for our clients in banking, insurance, life sciences, and our other key industries,” added Kandiah.

Idris Mootee, CEO, Idea Couture, said: “As part of Cognizant Digital Works, we will be able to do even more exciting things with design and technology. By connecting with Cognizant’s proven technical abilities, global scale, and domain expertise, we can help our clients realise the value of their innovation efforts.”

Courtesy : Business-Standard

Uber acquires truck startup Otto, plans test run of driverless SUVs

American multinational online transportation firm Uber Technologies Inc announced that it has acquired 'Otto', a technology startup whose aim is to make trucks self-driving.

While announcing the move in a posting on Uber's website on Thursday, chief executive officer and co-founder Travis Kalanick said his company would put about 100 self-driving sports utility vehicles (SUVs) onto the streets of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as soon as this month, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to Kalanick, some customers in the city, where Uber's Advanced Technologies Centre is located, will be able to summon the Volvo XC90s, outfitted with dozens of sensors that use cameras, lasers, radar, and global positioning system (GPS) receivers, for short rides while a human helper will be in the driver seat to supervise.

In his posting, Kalanick did not mention the planned self-driving test run in Pittsburgh, and did not reveal details of the deal between the world's largest ride-hailing network and Otto, both based in San Francisco, California.

Now a 90-person company, Otto was co-founded earlier this year by Anthony Levandowski, an engineer who once worked at Google on self-driving technology and two other former colleagues to equip trucks with software, sensors, lasers and cameras so they will be able to navigate the highway on their own.

Levandowski will lead "combined self-driving efforts reporting directly to me, across personal transportation, delivery and trucking," Kalanick said, noting that "when it comes to this advanced technology stack, Otto plus Uber is a dream team" and that "we now have one of the strongest autonomous engineering groups in the world."

Acknowledging that Uber has no experience in making cars, Kalanick also announced a partnership with Swedish car maker Volvo.

Courtesy : Business-Standard

AskMe Shuts Down, Leaves Employees In Distress

Gurgaon-based consumer Internet search platform AskMe has shut down its operations and has laid off its remaining staff. AskMe’s ecommerce website is live at the moment but it is not accepting any new orders.

According to people close to the development, the step was taken amidst severe cash crunch, alleged to the unplanned exit of Astro Holdings, its principal investor. AskMe, in a recent letter written to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and Registrar of Companies, has asked them to ensure that Astro does not exit the country without meeting its liabilities and commitments.

Recently, AskMe saw resignations from more than 650 employees who were in the annual salary bracket of INR 2.5 lakh-INR 6 lakh. To date, Astro has pumped in $119 Mn (INR 800 Cr) in the company according to filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. It was also in discussions with Alibaba and Baidu to raise $200 Mn this fiscal at $1 Bn valuation, to further revamp its etailing business AskMeBazaar.

Things got worse after the company’s major investors Helion Ventures and Astro held back their interests towards further funding. The Astro back out from a supposed MBO (Management Buyout) scheduled at the end of July this year just added to the downslide.

The shutdown has left more than 4000 employees, vendors, and other creditors at AskMe and the investor, in a state of panic. Earlier this month, an open letter by AskMe’s employees to Astro Holdings also revealed the inside story.

AskMe.com was launched as a classifieds portal in 2010. In 2012, AskMe came out with Askmebazaar as an online shopping portal focussing on small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Later in 2013, Getit acquired AskMe from Network18.

The portal was operating with over 120K merchants, in over 70 cities, including metros and Tier II cities as well. It also diversified into hyperlocal space with AskMebazaar’s next day delivery capability and in the fintech space with AskMePay’s AskMeFin. It had also invested $20 Mn in online furniture marketplace Mebelkart in August 2015 and acquired online grocery marketplace BestAtLowest.com.

Courtesy : in42.com

Hansa Cequity acquires Bengaluru -based D-Square Solutions

Hansa Cequity, a customer marketing company said it has acquired a majority stake in Bengaluru-based data science and analytics company, D-Square Solutions Private Limited, for an undisclosed sum.

Hansa hopes that the acquisition will help it scale the breadth of its analytics offerings and give it an entry into artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities.


"D-Square will operate as a separate entity but will synergize its resources and offerings with Cequity," said Ajay Khelkar, COO and co-founder, Hansa Cequity said in a statement.

Hansa Cequity had raised around $5 million (Rs 30 crore) from private equity firm ASK Pravi in June last year.

Hansa Cequity is a customer marketing company which provides customer strategy, data services, analytics, campaign management, digital and customer relationship centre services for key clients across different verticals.

They company claims to have over 80 million unique customer profiles being hosted in their infrastructure and analyse over 70 terabytes of data & manage over 600 million one-to-one customer-intelligence interactions in a year.

Hansa Cequity is currently a team of about 700 professionals working in client consulting engagements.

"This acquisition would strengthen our data science expertise and help in building strong capabilities in building cutting-edge artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities in addition to enhancing our analytics-driven marketing offerings," said, S Swaminathan, CEO and co-founder of Hansa Cequity.

"Founded in 2009, Bengaluru based D-Square Solutions brings together business analytics products and consultancy solutions to help optimise time spent on informed decisions," added Swaminathan.

D-square currently caters to clients in IT & networking, BFSI and other industries across markets.

"There has always been a growing appetite by decision makers for data science," said Anand Srinivasan, founder and chief executive of D-Square Solutions. (EOM)

 Courtesy : Business-Standard

Johnson Controls, Tyco Vote for Merger (JCI, TYC)

A tough government stance on inversion rules notwithstanding, shareholders approved the $14 billion merger between Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI) and Tyco International PLC (TYC). According to a press release issued by Johnson Controls, 97% of the votes (representing 81% of the company's shareholders) were cast in favor of the deal. Tyco shareholders had already approved the deal yesterday. The merger is expected to be completed by September 2. (For more, see also: Johnson Controls Trades Ex-Dividend.)

“I am pleased our shareholders have voted in favor of this powerful strategic combination, which will unite two world-class companies with complementary capabilities" Alex Molinaroli, chairman and CEO of Johnson Controls, stated. The merger creates a building and equipment behemoth with over $30 billion in revenue. Leadership for the merged entity will rotate between chief executives at both companies. Molinaroli will lead the merged entity for the first 18 months and will be followed by Tyco CEO George Oliver for the next 18 months.

There are several benefits to the merger.

For starters, the combined company is expected to have annual tax savings of $150 million. This is because Tyco is domiciled in Ireland, which has a corporate tax rate of 12.5%, as opposed to the United States, which has a corporate tax rate of 35%. When you add that figure to the operational cost-cuttings and synergies worth $350 million that will be realized as part of the deal, the expected savings figure snowballs to $500 million at the end of the third year. (For more, see also: Analyzing Johnson Controls’ Returns On Equity.)

Second, the merger could bolster operations for both companies in multiple geographies. A large chunk of both companies’ revenues comes from overseas. For example, Johnson Controls reported a 49% jump in revenues for its automotive experience unit, which reported revenues of $344 million, in China. Similarly, Tyco has a strong presence in Europe.

Finally, the merger will result in a company that is better positioned to make the transition to the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem, where home devices and buildings are increasingly connected to the internet.

The merger has happened despite rhetoric from the Department of Justice against such transactions. The Obama government has unveiled a number of proposals and rules to curb takeovers of American multinational corporations by companies based in low-tax regimes. Last year, the government’s rules helped prevent one such merger between Chicago-based AbbVie Inc. (ABBV) and Shire PLC (SHPG).

Courtesy : Investopedia

Here's what Cisco's CEO Chuck Robbins told investors about his decision to cut 5,500 jobs

Cisco announced its plan to cut 5,500 jobs, or 7% of the total workforce.

That's much smaller than the 14,000 job cuts some reports suggested on Tuesday, but still one of the largest in Cisco's company history.

Cisco's CEO Chuck Robbins said in an earnings call with investors on Wednesday that the layoffs will essentially help the company move away from "slow growth" areas and reinvest in "key priorities," as it continues to shift its business from legacy hardware to software and the cloud:

"Today's market requires Cisco and our customers to be decisive, move with greater speed, and drive more innovation than we've seen in our history.

"Today we announced a restructuring, enabling us to optimize our cost base in lower growth areas of our portfolio and further invest in key priority areas such as security, IoT, collaboration, next generation data center, and cloud. We expect to reinvest substantially all of the cost savings from these actions back to the businesses and we'll continue to aggressively invest to focus on our areas of future growth."

In other words, Robbins wants to shift Cisco's priority from its legacy switching and routing businesses to its high-growth cloud security and wireless businesses.

That's a big task given switching and routing still comprised nearly half of Cisco's revenue last year. And although security and collaboration businesses saw the fastest growth rates, each up 13% and 9% year-over-year respectively, they only accounted for about 13% of total revenue.

Robbins was also cautious with the perception that Cisco might be abandoning investments in its core legacy business entirely, adding it's a "relative" statement.

"It's more of a relative statement than it is an absolute statement. At the same time, we actually are working very diligently on bringing innovation to our core...So it's not that we're ignoring one in favor of another, we just want to make sure our investments are commensurate with our growth opportunity from a relative perspective," he said.

Courtesy : Business Insider

Alibaba Eyes Acquisition Of Ecommerce Platform ShopClues; Plans To Merge It With Paytm

Chinese ecommerce giant, Alibaba has reportedly held discussions to acquire online marketplace ShopClues.

In January 2016, ShopClues raised Series E funding, and said that its valuation stands at more than $1.1 Bn. Tiger Global, GIC and Nexus Venture Partners participated in this round of funding.

In May 2015, through its marketplace AliExpress, Alibaba entered the Indian ecommerce market. AliExpress got into a strategic tie-up with Indian mobile wallet company Paytm.

According to sources close to the development, Alibaba wants to merge the marketplace of Paytm, with ShopClues, to firm up against rival Amazon.

When contacted, ShopClues co-founder Radhika Agarwal declined to comment. Emails sent to her and the company spokesperson also went unanswered.

An Alibaba spokesperson, in an emailed response, told TOI, “As a company policy, we do not in principle comment on rumours about our business plans in the media. India is an important emerging market with great potential and we are absolutely committed to developing this market for the long term. We see the market as a natural progression of our strategy to expand Alibaba’s global footprint, and believe that it offers tremendous opportunities for the expansion of our ecosystem for doing commerce globally,”

Gurgaon-based ShopClues was launched in 2011 by Sandeep Aggarwal, Radhika Aggarwal and Sanjay Sethi. It counts GIC of Singapore, Tiger Global, Nexus Venture Partners and Helion as investors and has raised about $250 Mn till date.

Former Zynga and Yahoo executive K Guru Gowrappan (Global Managing Director of Alibaba) is driving the M&A talks with the senior management of ShopClues. Gowrappan joined Alibaba in November 2015. He is expected to join the board of One97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm, and is working from Paytm’s offices in Noida.

In June 2016, it was reported that the family offices of Alibaba Group chairman Jack Ma and executive vice chairman Joseph Tsai, are reportedly exploring investments in India.

According to sources close to the development, meetings between the emerging pool of Chinese private capital and the representatives of Indian startups are mostly being held in Singapore and Hong Kong.

In April 2015, Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group, with a personal fortunes of about $24 Bn, had expressed his plans to capture larger chunk of the growing ecommerce space in India. He had said that Alibaba would look to acquire firms that can help improve customer experience as well as expand its range of products and services.

With this in mind, it set about acquiring stakes in the Indian ecommerce biggies. Currently it owns 40% stake in Paytm and 5% stake in Snapdeal, among others. In February reports emerged that after investing in Paytm and Snapdeal, it was looking to invest in Indian ecommerce major Flipkart.

People close to the development had confirmed that the talks to invest in Flipkart were currently at a nascent stage and the likelihood of a deal was dependent upon Flipkart’s willingness to offer a discount on its current valuation of $15 Bn.

Investment bankers have taken multiple deal proposals to Alibaba in recent months. On the other hand, Flipkart has also been rumoured as a potential partner for ShopClues since Tiger Global is a common investor in both.

Chinese firms are increasingly taking an interest in the burgeoning Indian economy. In January 2016, China’s travel booking giant, Ctrip, picked up a stake in MakeMyTrip by investing $180 Mn.

Courtesy : in42.com

WordPress 4.6 arrives with streamlined updates, native fonts, and editor improvements

WordPress.org launched WordPress 4.6, which adds a slew of new features to the blog management tool to help you “focus on the important things while feeling more at home.” You can download the new release, available in 52 languages, now from WordPress.org/Download (8.2MB).

WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that powers 25 percent of the web. The latest version is dubbed “Pepper,” in honor of jazz baritone saxophonist Park Frederick “Pepper” Adams.

WordPress 4.6 brings streamlined updates. When you update, install, and delete your plugins and themes, you won’t be forced to navigate away from the page.

Next up, the WordPress dashboard can now finally take advantage of the fonts you already have. This should result in faster loading, as well as a more native feel on whatever device you’re using.

There are also two improvements to the editor. The Inline Link Checker automatically checks to make sure your links are correct, and Content Recovery saves your content to the browser as you type.

I’m particularly excited about the latter as many of our team members prefer to write in the browser. Yes, I did write this article about WordPress in Microsoft Word.

Last, but not least, there are a number of under-the-hood improvements:

* Resource Hints: Resource hints help browsers decide which resources to fetch and preprocess.      
  WordPress 4.6 adds them automatically for your styles and scripts making your site even faster.
* Robust Requests: The HTTP API now leverages the Requests library, improving HTTP standard
   support and adding case-insensitive headers, parallel HTTP requests, and support for
   Internationalized Domain Names.
* WP_Term_Query and WP_Post_Type: A new WP_Term_Query class adds flexibility to query term    information while a new WP_Post_Type object makes interacting with post types more predictable.
* Meta Registration API: The Meta Registration API has been expanded to support types,    
   descriptions, and REST API visibility.
* Translations On Demand: WordPress will install and use the newest language packs for your
   plugins and themes as soon as they’re available from WordPress.org’s community of translators.
* JavaScript Library Updates: Masonry 3.3.2, imagesLoaded 3.2.0, MediaElement.js 2.22.0,
   TinyMCE 4.4.1, and Backbone.js 1.3.3 are bundled.
* Customizer APIs for Setting Validation and Notifications: Settings now have an API for enforcing
   validation constraints. Likewise, customizer controls now support notifications, which are used to
   display validation errors instead of failing silently.
* Multisite, now faster than ever: Cached and comprehensive site queries improve your network
   admin experience. The addition of WP_Site_Query and WP_Network_Query help craft advanced      queries with less effort.

WordPress 4.7 is already in the works, though the company didn’t specify a month for its release. That said, we would estimate it probably won’t be out before November.

Courtesy : Venturebeat

Cisco cutting 5,500 jobs, 7% of workforce, in shift away from switches and routers

Cisco Systems Inc said it would lay off up to 5,500 employees, or nearly 7 percent of its workforce, as the world’s largest networking gear maker shifts focus to areas such as security, Internet of Things and cloud.

Cisco’s traditional business of switches and routers has been struggling with sluggish demand from telecom carriers and enterprise customers and intense competition from companies such as Huawei and Juniper Networks Inc.

Revenue in the company’s traditional routers business fell 6 percent in the fourth-quarter ended July 30, while switching unit revenue was up 2 percent.

Chief Executive Chuck Robbins, who took over from John Chambers in July last year, has been steering the company toward more software and services businesses.

Revenue in Cisco’s security business, which offers firewall protection as well as intrusion detection and prevention systems, rose 16 percent.

Cisco, which is also betting on acquisitions to bolster its faster-growing businesses, has made 10 acquisitions since Robbins took the helm, according to FactSet StreetAccount data.

These deals range from internet-of-things startup Jasper Technologies to cloud security provider CloudLock.

Cisco’s net profit rose to $2.81 billion, or 56 cents per share, in the fourth quarter, from $2.32 billion, or 45 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, the company earned 63 cents per share.

Revenue fell 1.6 percent to $12.64 billion.

Analysts on average had expected a profit of 60 cents and revenue of $12.58 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Cisco, which expects to start laying off employees from the first quarter, said it will take a charge of about $325 million to $400 million in the quarter. On the whole, the company expects a pre-tax charge of $700 million.

Technology news site CRN, citing sources close to the company, reported on Tuesday that Cisco planned to lay off about 14,000 employees, or nearly 20 percent of its workforce.

Cisco’s shares were down 1.2 percent at $30.38 in after-market trading on Wednesday.

The shares had gained 13.2 percent this year through Wednesday’s close, compared with the 6.8 percent increase in the broader S&P 500 index.

Courtesy : Venture Beat

Ola lays off 700 employees, shuts down TaxiForSure business

Ola has shut down its TaxiForSure business and has laid off 700 employees, according to three people directly aware of the developments at India's largest cab aggregator.

This move comes nearly a year and half after Ola acquired its crosstown rival TaxiForSure for $200 million to gain market leadership against rival Uber, the most-valuable startup in the world.

"Since the acquisition, Ola has been unclear about the brand positioning of TaxiForSure," said a top executive at the company. "Silently, the TaxiForSure fleet was transferred to Ola supply and even incentives were more lucrative for Ola vs TaxiForSure," this person added.

"With all TFS driver-partners and customers coming on board the Ola app, the integration is now complete," Ola Spokesperson said in a statement. "..We have absorbed as many TFS employees for open roles in Ola to support our growth. For positions that cease to exist as a result of this transition, we are offering enhanced severance benefits and outplacement services to help affected employees pursue new career opportunities," the statement said.

The total cost reduction with these layoffs is close to Rs 30 crore a month, said an investor with direct knowledge of the company's financials.

A person close to Ola said a large number of the employees being laid off will get three months salary as part of their severance package, this person added.

"While Taxiforsure application and option to book an Taxiforsure cab is still present in Ola application, this will be phased out over time," this person added.

This development also comes at a time when the SoftBank-backed aggregator is looking to reduce its cash burn as the battle with rival Uber is set to intensify in the country. Especially so after the latter sold its cash-guzzling China operations to Didi Chuxing, which is also a minority investor in Ola.

Courtesy : Ecnomictimes.Indiatimes.com

Twitch is acquiring popular video game community and software maker Curse

Live streaming video platform Twitch (a subsidiary of Amazon) is doubling down on video games with the acquisition of a significant player in the world of video game communities: Curse. The terms of the deal are undisclosed and Twitch declined to comment beyond the official announcement.

Curse operates myriad websites and services — some of them were created in-house over the past few years, others were acquired. In 2006, Curse started with a website that offered mods for World of Warcraft.

While World of Warcraft is past its prime time, the company managed to create new communities for new games with huge audiences. For instance, Curse operates database and guide websites for League of Legends, World of Warcraft and NFL games, video game news sites, many different high-traffic forums around Minecraft, Pokémon, Diablo III and Hearthstone, and all the GamePedia wikis. The company also has various mod databases. That’s quite a lot — more than 30 million people visit Curse’s properties every month.

In addition, the company has recently launched a product for computers simply called Curse. This is a TeamSpeak competitor so that you can meet up with your online buddies and play together. It integrates an IRC-like chat feature that lets you chat with your teams, a VoIP feature so you can coordinate with your teammates while you play and, yes, streamer tools to make it easier to stream on Twitch or YouTube Gaming.

Twitch could use some parts of this app to work on an in-house broadcasting solution. Right now the company tells you to install third-party software.

And, of course, Twitch is acquiring big video game communities, as well as people who know how to foster those communities. At heart, Twitch lives and dies by its community of streamers and watchers. Interestingly, Curse and Twitch share the same niche.

Courtesy : TechCrunch

Another Salesforce acquisition with BeyondCore enterprise analytics grab

Business analytics platform BeyondCore will be officially joining Salesforce, according to a blog post by BeyondCore CEO Arijit Sengupta. BeyondCore is an enterprise analytics tool that bolsters business intelligence with computational and statistical analysis.

While Salesforce could have gone fishing and come up with a number of business intelligence companies to buy, BeyondCore was already integrated with the Salesforce platform.

“We decided to show off our integration into Salesforce, which would be part of our upcoming BeyondCore 7 release,” said Sengupta in the post.

Salesforce has an active corporate development team and has eaten at least nine companies this year, including three since the middle of last month.

The company’s $750 million acquisition of Quip places Microsoft squarely within their line of sight. Quip enables cloud-based word processing. Interestingly, BeyondCore consistently touts its integration with Microsoft Office. That said, there is little indication that BeyondCore will completely dissolve into Salesforce.

“We’ll continue to deliver our innovative technology to customers as part of Salesforce and deliver the same great service you’ve come to expect from us,” reiterated Sengupta.

Sengupta founded BeyondCore back in 2004 and raised a cumulative $9 million in financing from Menlo Ventures in a Series A back in 2014.

The transaction comes at a time of regular M&A activity in the Valley. A number of transactions, including Quip, came with at-least leaks of massive acquisition values, but an even greater number have not produced anything in the way of financial headlines. BeyondCore and Salesforce declined to comment on the specifics of this deal that’s expected to close later this year.

Some speculate this is the result of a cooling in valuations and a need for exits. However, it’s important to remember that not every transaction will fit neatly in a box.

“Acquisitions can still fill holes in the cloud space,” said Brent Leary, co-founder and partner at CRM Essentials. “Being able to more seamlessly integrate data analytics with cloud components fills a hole.”

Whether the transaction will turn out to be a critical key in an assault against Microsoft, or simply a strategic acquihire is yet to be seen. Until then, we will be eating popcorn waiting for the next Salesforce acquisition.

Courtesy : TechCrunch.com

Snapchat is in talks to buy a search startup for over $100 million

Snapchat is buying search startup Vurb in a stock and cash deal totaling over $100 million, according to The Information.

Vurb bills itself as an "experience" search engine that helps people "easily find, save, and do the best things by connecting community recommendations, rich content, and useful services."

The 5-year-old startup is backed by Redpoint Ventures, Tencent, Marc Benioff, and Dropbox CEO Drew Houston, among others.

Snapchat's acquisition will be a 75% stock and 25% cash deal, notes The Information. The report says that Vurb founder Bobby Lo is also getting a multi-year retention package of "around $75 million" as part of the deal.

Vurb's mobile app integrates with services like Yelp for restaurant information and Fandango for movie tickets. The app also has a social aspect that shows Foursquare-like tips and recommendations.

Courtesy : Business Insider

Google is building a totally new operating system

Google is working on a totally new operating system - and it has nothing to do with Android.
A page has surfaced on code-sharing GitHub about the new OS, called - for now, at least - Fuchsia.

It's not based on Android, the Californian technology company's mobile operating system used in billions of smartphones around the world, nor does it build upon the Linux kernel.

The GitHub page is pretty sparse on explainers: Its description is simply: "Pink + Purple == Fuchsia (a new Operating System)."

There has been no official announcement from Google, and it sounds like the open source project is fairly early-days. "The decision was made to build it open source, so might as well start there from the beginning," Google employee Brian Swetland said in an IRC chatlog shared on Hacker News.

"Things will eventually be public, documented and announced, just not yet," said another person. Google did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

We then come to the billion-dollar-question: What is Fuchsia actually for?

Short answer: We don't know, but there is already plenty of speculation.

Tech blog Android Police, which was one of the first to report on the existence of the OS, thinks it will have potential applications in the internet of things. Linux (and Android) isn't ideal for a lot of use-cases that don't involve traditional computers; as "the internet of things" becomes more and more common, it makes sense that Google would make a play with its own operating system, just like it did (with great success) in mobile.

It is worth noting, that Fuchsia isn't limited to the IoT: Android Police took a look at the OS's documentation, and noticed that its "Magenta" kernel is designed to work on everything to "embedded devices" to mobile devices and desktop computers.

Some users on Hacker News (with little hard evidence) are guessing that it might be used for augmented reality. "You want an RTOS for loss and predictable latency. And current GUIs aren't really suited to 3D environments you can walk around inside," ansible speculates. "This is Google's next Android, with a low latency rendering pipeline for the next generation of mobile devices."

It's also possible that Google will use it to replace and unify Android and Chrome OS, the company's two operating systems that run on mobile and laptops respectively. Over at PC World, Nick Mediati explores this idea: "One possibility I see is where Google uses Fuchsia instead of Linux as the underpinnings for next-generation versions of Chrome OS and Android. That is, both would use some form of Fuchsia-or the Magenta kernel-as the underlying basis of the two operating systems (as well as the operating system for other Google devices such as the Chromecast)."

Fuchsia could be nothing, an interesting project from Google employees that never makes it to a commercial release.

Or it could be the seeds of Google's next major play: A unification of its existing operating systems and a push into the next generation of computing platforms.

One thing we know for sure is that it's worth watching closely.

Courtesy : BusinessInsider.in

The 10 biggest European tech stories

Tech.eu tracked 14 technology M&A transactions and 46 funding deals (totalling €258 million) in Europe, Turkey and Israel.

Like every week, we listed every single one of them in our free weekly newsletter, along with interesting news regarding fledgling European startups, tech investors old and new, a number of good reads published elsewhere, government and policy news, as well as an overview of interesting lists, facts and figures from a wide variety of sources.

You can subscribe to our newsletter below to receive all this information in your inbox every Friday afternoon for free, but here’s an overview of the 10 biggest European tech news items for this week:

1) Randstad, an Amsterdam-based human resources and recruitment specialist, is acquiring job hunting portal Monster for $429 million in cash.

2) Uber has made a small, direct investment in four European tech startups.

3) Russia’s national regulator fined Google $6.75 million for violating antitrust rules on tablets and mobile phones, after reviewing a complaint filed by local search engine Yandex last year.

4) Dutch data visualisation startup Silk has been acquired by Peter Thiel’s Palantir for an undisclosed amount, will shut down its service.

5) American-Israeli open-source video platform Kaltura has raised $50 million from Goldman Sachs.

6) Apple’s planned €850 million data center in Ireland has been approved.

7) British mobile banking startup Mondo has been granted a UK banking licence ‘with restrictions’ by regulators.

8) Airbnb paid less than €70,000 in taxes in France in 2015, according to reports in French media, as authorities in Barcelona have stepped up a crackdown on homes illegally rented out to tourists on the website.

9) Online retailer Amazon plans to create 500 new jobs when it opens another distribution center in northern England next year.

10) Telecoms companies will face new EU rules on how they can access Internet networks under a change to European law that could stoke tensions between large, former monopolies and smaller operators.

This post first appeared on Tech.eu

Xiaomi eyes Indian mobile technology start-ups for investments, tie-ups

Smart devices maker Xiaomi Inc is scouting the Indian market to invest in mobile technology start-ups and to forge partnerships with local content creators as part of its strategy to build an ecosystem around its products in the country.

The Chinese firm sells smartphones, tablets, fitness bands, power banks and Bluetooth speakers in India. It has plans to introduce its brand of air purifiers and smart television sets in India.

But the TV launch might take some more time because the company is yet to finalize its content strategy, according to Manu Jain, India head of Xiaomi.

Xiaomi’s investment in digital media firm Hungama Digital Media Entertainment in April was a step towards building its services ecosystem in India, Jain said. The company led a $25 million round in Hungama in its first investment in the country.

Two Hungama apps, Hungama Music and Hungama Play, will be made available, free of cost, to Xiaomi users for 12 and three months, respectively.

Xiaomi recently tied up with mobile wallet company, One Mobikwik Systems Pvt. Ltd, to allow its 1 million Indian users to use Mobikwik’s SMS-based payment service for free.

In China, Xiaomi’s home base, the company has incubated or invested in 55 promising hardware and content companies. Some of these companies have developed new product categories such as air purifiers, water purifiers, electric cookers, scooters, and even drones, while others have created software and content that complements Xiaomi’s other products.

At least 20 of the 55 companies have launched a product and four of them have achieved the so-called unicorn status, or start-ups with a valuation of at least $1 billion.

“We will find the best people in the world who can do it and we will incubate them or buy stake in them,” Jain said.

Xiaomi, the world’s second most valuable start-up and China’s biggest unicorn, is exploring similar opportunities in India. It is looking at “multiple” software and technology companies, Jain said.

“In India, I don’t see many good hardware companies right now,” he said. “We are definitely looking at mobi-tech [mobile technology] start-ups to make investments.”

Eventually, the company plans to introduce most of its products in the Indian market and will actively look at Indian start-ups that complement its devices.

Next in line is air purifiers, which given the high pollution levels in most Indian cities, is a category Xiaomi sees promise in.

“We think smart air purifiers are a great category to launch in India,” Jain said. “We think we can launch air purifiers and completely own this space in the country.”

Courtesy : LiveMint

Cairn India Merger: Vedanta to seek creditors nod on 8 September

Mining giant Vedanta will hold a meeting of its creditors on 8 September in Goa to seek their approval for the merger of Cairn India with it under a revised all-share deal.

Vedanta has called meetings with its both secured and unsecured creditors on same date in Goa to seek their approval for the merger. It has already scheduled a meeting of equity shareholders on the same day in Goa for approval of the merger. The high court of Bombay at Goa on 18 December, 2015 and 22 July, 2016, had directed the firm to convene a meeting of secured and unsecured creditors of Vedanta on 8 September, or immediately after the meeting of the company’s secured creditors, Vedanta said in separate regulatory filings. The orders of the high court are over the proposed merger of Cairn India with Vedanta Ltd, it added.

Pursuant to the orders, the company will seek approval of its secured and unsecured creditors for the proposed scheme of Cairn India with Vedanta Ltd, the filings said. On Thursday, Cairn India said it has called a shareholders’ meeting on 12 September to seek approval for its takeover by parent firm Vedanta Ltd under a revised all-share deal.

In a bid to salvage the merger of cash-rich oil firm Cairn India with its debt-laden parent Vedanta, billionaire Anil Agarwal-led group had last month sweetened the deal by offering three additional preference shares in hope of winning over minority shareholders like LIC. Through the merger, Agarwal is looking to create India’s largest diversified natural resources firm, which could compete with BHP Billiton and Vale SA. In the revised offer, Vedanta will give minority shareholders of Cairn India one equity share and four redeemable-preference shares with a face value of Rs.10 each. The preference shares will carry a coupon of 7.5% and tenure of 18 months.

Vedanta is said to be wanting to use Rs.23,290 crore cash lying with Cairn to pay off part of its Rs.77,952 crore debt. It had in May rolled over a controversial $1.25-billion loan taken from Cairn India in July 2014. For the merger to go through, half of the minority shareholders, who together make up for 40% of the Cairn equity, have to approve the deal.

State-owned LIC holds 9.06% in Cairn India while the company’s former promoter Cairn Energy Plc of the UK has 9.82% interest. The deal will go through if LIC votes in favour of the deal, a person familiar with the matter said.

Post-merger, London-listed parent Vedanta Resources Plc’s holding in Vedanta will drop to 50.1% from 62.9%. Cairn India’s minority shareholders will own 20.2% and Vedanta minority shareholders 29.7% in the merged entity. In June last year, Vedanta had offered shareholders of Cairn India one ordinary share and 7.5% redeemable preference share with a face value of Rs.10 each.

Courtesy : LiveMint

India Inc on Maternity Benefit Bill: Good step, will help retain female workforce

India Inc on Tursday welcomed the passage of Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016 in Rajya Sabha that provides for 26 weeks maternity leave.

"This initiative would be a good step towards finding solutions to retain female employees and simultaneously it would also be a strengthening move towards increased return to work post-maternity and greater employee retention in the long run," FICCI Lades Organisation President Vinita Bimbhet said.

"This will finally pave the way to create more inclusive work environment and promote gender diversity in workplace," she added.

The bill providing for enhancement of maternity leave from 12 to 26 weeks was today passed by the Rajya Sabha, in a step aimed at benefiting about 1.8 million women in the organised sector and increasing the strength of the working women force.

"We were among the first companies to extend maternity leave from 3 months to 6 months starting last year. "We recognised that the extended maternity leave and flexible work hours are important support factors during motherhood for women. We welcome the amendments in the Act as they ratify our belief and further extend this benefit to millions of women, enabling them to have a better work-life balance during maternity," PepsiCo India said in statement.

These amendments also include 12 weeks maternity leave to a commissioning mother and Adopting mother and mandatory provision of creche in respect of establishment having 50 or more employees.

Courtesy : Firstpost

SBI, Korea Development Bank join hands for biz opportunities

Country's largest public sector lender State bank of India and Korea Development Bank have signed a memorandum of understanding to enhance business synergies.

The agreement outlines the plan to enhance cooperation in areas including corporate finance, project finance and asset finance.

"Asset finance includes (but not limited to) trade finance, cash management products, syndicated loans, infrastructure/real estate financing, capital markets, securitisation, derivatives and risk management, financial advisory services and acquisition finance," SBI said in a statement here.

The agreement was signed between SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya, and chairman and CEO of Korea Development Bank (KDB), Lee Dong Geol.

"To enable a smooth cooperation and draw the full benefit from the MoU, both the banks will work on the establishment of a korea desk in India," the statement said.

The proposed credit lines from KDB will help SBI to offer competitive terms for facilitating bilateral business.

The proposed Korea Desk follows the recent inauguration of Japan Desk by SBI in New Delhi," Bhattacharya said.

KDB is providing funding facility to SBI through credit lines and/or money market lines, as per terms agreed between the two banks.

The funds may be used for money market, trade finance and loans to Korean companies doing business in the country, the statement said.

"We are delighted to sign this agreement with India's leading financial institution, which will help facilitate the growth of Korean Companies operating in India," KDB Chairman Lee Dong Geol said.

Through this MoU, both SBI and KDB will gain direct access to both markets of operation, and will be able to use the vast combined network to expand their businesses abroad.

"India is increasingly making its global presence felt across various landscapes. Partnering with an organisation like SBI is strategically important to us, and we look forward to contributing to SBI's growth through our market expertise and established relationships," Geol added.

Courtesy : Money Control