Verizon has acquired smart lighting startup Sensity Systems

Verizon Communications Inc. has acquired smart lighting startup Sensity Systems Inc. for an undisclosed sum.

Founded in 2010, Sensity offers a high-speed, sensor-based, multiservice, open networking platform known as a Light Sensory Network (LSN) that is designed to help lighting owners improve lighting control and energy efficiency, as well as delivering business processes that go well beyond lighting.

The company’s platform embeds networking technology in both new and retrofitted LED lighting systems that can not only improve energy efficiency and cost savings, but can assist in services including public safety, parking control, asset management, and retail analytics through the platform’s ability to support sensors, cameras, and thermometers.

Sensity has currently rolled out 42 smart city installations across the globe working with partners including Cisco Systems Inc., Qualcomm Inc., Panasonic and others; the company’s clients include Fortune 500 businesses, commercial and industrial property owners, retail facilities, municipal and regional agencies, universities, school districts, hospitals, transportation authorities, warehousing and distribution facilities, and horticulture operations.

Verizon plans to add Sensity to its ThingSpace Internet of Things (IoT) business, a platform it launched in 2015 that serves as a place for developers to create apps, for end users to better manage their devices, and for partners to market their services; in particular Sensity will operate alongside Verizon’s Smart Communities organization that currently offers connected-intelligent solutions the covering parking, lighting, traffic management and security.

“Sensity is a leading provider of IoT solutions for smart communities with a strong ecosystem of partners, and this transaction will accelerate the deployment of large-scale implementations that will drive the digital transformation of cities, universities and venues,” Verizon Vice President – Enterprise Products and IoT Mike Lanman said in a statement. “Verizon is uniquely positioned through its infrastructure investments at the network, platform and application levels to provide holistic solutions that empower communities to address their most pervasive challenges.”

Smart buy

The acquisition of Sensity can best be described as a smart buy by Verizon as the Sunnyvale-based startup not only provides a strong foot in the door to smart commercial lighting but is also a highly complimentary fit to Verizon’s quickly growing IoT business.
Prior to acquisition, Sensify had raised $74 million over three rounds from investors including, Acuity Brands, Almaz, Cisco Investments, GE Ventures, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Jonathan Feiber, Simon Venture Group and Trinity Capital Investment.
The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

Courtesy : Siliconangle

Google plans to develop website 'Bharat Saves'; to offer information on financial planning

Google wants to help you save more and invest better.

The US-headquartered technology company with a large India presence is planning to develop a website, Bharat Saves, which will offer information on financial planning.

Google wants to align its Bharat Saves website to the government's financial inclusion scheme, Jan Dhan Yojana, which has since its 2014 launch seen 24 crore new bank accounts being opened and attracted deposits ofRs 41,000 crore.

A senior finance ministry official, speaking off record, told ET that Google is in talks with the government and that the company's proposal is being "examined".
He said the digital platform "may provide a range of financial literacy tools and information on financial products".

A Google spokesperson told ET: "In line with the Prime Minister's vision to create greater financial inclusion-....various BFSI organisations and industry associations are coming together to launch a digital platform".

The spokesperson also said a financial literacy awareness campaign may be part of the plan. Bharat Saves will be an app and website, both of which are being designed by Google.

In the first leg, users have to log into either of the platforms and complete financial literacy modules.

They will need to take a financial literacy test, the certifications for which will be given by the Indian government, Google and an industry organization.

Target Consumers for Google's Offering

These will open up a second section of the app/website, where users will be able to see, compare and purchase banking and insurance products. Eventually, more financial product categories will be added and the platform will be linked to PM's Jan Dhan Yojana.
The target consumers for this platform will be homemakers, small business owners, the newly employed, retired persons and farmers.

Apple pay

Google's proposal to the government comes at a time another American technology behemoth, Apple, has held talks with the government on making Apple Pay, a mobile payment and digital wallet service, a part of financial inclusion programmes.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has met several technology company CEOs and deeper participation in the government's Digital India programme has been on the agenda in these meetings.
"There were some discussions on these issues when the PM met CEOs of top tech giants at the Digital India forum in San Jose, California during his visit to the US," an official familiar with the issue said.
India's savings rate has fallen recently - IMF data shows a fall from 36 per cent of GDP to 31 per cent GDP between 2007-08 and now. Household savings have also fallen, with other data showing households save less than a quarter of their disposable income, down from over 30 per cent around four years back.
While stagnant income in real terms/high inflation for many social classes has been identified as a recent factor for drop in the savings rate, economists have long argued that lack of access to modern financial instruments is also a structural contributory factor.

Courtesy : Techgig

Quikr India acquires on-demand beauty service provider Zapluk

Online classifieds portal Quikr India Pvt. Ltd has acquired on-demand beauty and wellness service provider Zapluk (ZapForce Technologies Pvt. Ltd) for an undisclosed amount, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

The acquisition of Hyderabad-based Zapluk, which had raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from a clutch of investors, including the former Apple India CEO Alok Sharma, comes three months after Quikr India acquired Gurgaon-based on-demand beauty service provider Salosa (Beawel Tech Pvt. Ltd) in May.

Post the acquisition of Salosa, Quikr India rebranded its home beauty service as AtHomeDiva in July. The acquisition of Zapluk is expected to strengthen Quikr’s home beauty services, which have now been rolled out to Bengaluru, New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Gurgaon and Hyderabad.

The home beauty service is part of QuikrServices, one of the five verticals identified by Quikr last year to grow revenue.

Quikr is focusing on five key business segments—automobiles, real estate, jobs, services and customer-to-customer sales —it has identified as new sources of revenue and fend off competition from other venture capital-backed businesses that have emerged in each of these categories.

“Zapluk’s operational strengths, trained pool of stylists and professionals and highly engaged user base in the Chennai and Hyderabad markets will allow us to expand the reach of our AtHomeDiva brand in these markets rapidly. AtHomeDiva is growing fast and the number of services delivered by our team of trained and professional stylists is growing by more than 100% month on month. While we are experiencing a high repeat rate, what’s even better is the average transaction value is increasing steadily for repeat users,” P.D. Sundar, head of QuikrServices, said in a statement.

Quikr had earlier committed an investment of Rs.250 crore to strengthen its home services vertical.

Zapluk was founded by Manan Maheshwari and Mahesh Teja Gogineni in August 2015.

The firm had acquired Chennai-based competitor Pamperazi in June this year. Lavanya Hariharan, co-founder of Pamperazi, had subsequently joined Zapluk.

Following the acquisition by Quikr, Maheshwari and Gogineni will quit the company, but Hariharan will join Quikr.

Quikr is growing beyond a listing platform to a one-stop shop for used goods by enabling payments on its platform, as well as facilitating logistics, a move likely to throw open additional revenue channels at a time when a slowdown in external funding is prompting start-ups to reduce cash burn and focus on profitability.

The company has been investing aggressively to build the five verticals it has identified by both acquiring start-ups and making strategic investments, especially in the real estate segment. For instance, it acquired real estate portal Commonfloor (maxHeap Technologies Pvt. Ltd) for $120 million in January.

This apart, it has acquired Indian Realty Exchange (123 Startup Ventures Pvt. Ltd), a real estate agent aggregator, and RealtyCompass, a realty analytics start-up, besides making a strategic investment in A.N. Virtual World Tech Ltd, a company which provides 360-degree street views.

Quikr has so far raised $346 million from investors such as Tiger Global Management, Warburg Pincus and Norwest Venture Partners, among others and is currently valued at $1.5 billion.

Courtesy : Livemint.com

Quikr acquires Bengaluru-based start-up Stepni

Online classifieds platform Quikr India Pvt. Ltd has acquired Stepni, a Bengaluru-based start-up that connects vehicle owners with service providers, for an undisclosed amount, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

Quikr has been driving a verticalization exercise, under which the company is focusing on five key business segments—automobiles, real estate, jobs, services and customer-to-customer sales—that it has identified as new sources of revenue to fend off competition from other venture capital-backed firms that have emerged in each of these categories.

The acquisition of Stepni (FO Auto Technologies Pvt. Ltd) is expected to help Quikr strengthen car-related services under the QuikrCars vertical, as well as boost its services business, QuikrServices.

Stepni, founded by Vinay Singh and Nikhil Nair in October 2015, claims to have a network of more than 125 service centres across Bengaluru.

The Stepni team, including the founders, will join QuikrCars, the statement said. Quikr aims to expand the vehicle maintenance service to other cities in the next three months.

Courtesy : Livemint.com

Also Read : Quikr India acquires on-demand beauty service provider Zapluk

Dell Closes $60 Billion Merger with EMC

Dell completed its merger with EMC Corporation today. The new merged company pushes Dell farther on its trajectory away from its roots as a computer maker in Round Rock.

Michael Dell is one of the architects of the $60 billion acquisition – the largest deal in tech industry history. He is now the CEO the newly-named Dell Technologies. Dell's core computer business, the company we've known for years, will be based in Round Rock. It's new combined data center business, Dell EMC, will be based in EMC's Hopkinton, Mass. offices.

Dell Chief Financial Officer Tom Sweet projected annual revenue for Dell Technologies to be about $74 billion, making it the third largest private companies in the U.S. according to Forbes, behind Cargill and Koch Industries.

Technology expert Rob Enderle, who used to work on acquisitions at IBM, says this is a rare deal where Dell is the smaller company buying a bigger one. But the size of EMC and Dell’s enterprise plans going forward means the center of Dell’s universe may no longer be in Round Rock.

“It looks like much of the enterprise work, or the mass of Dell, will start reporting out of Massachusetts and no longer be in Texas,” says Enderle.

"We've got the Austin headquarters. We've got the Boston headquarters," said Dell EMC President David Goulden on a conference call this morning. "We're actually a dual-headquartered company, that's global in nature. We have significant number of strategic development, R&D, manufacturing sights around the world that form part of our critical ecosystem."

Round Rock staff are no strangers to scaling up a company, but Enderle suggests the magnitude of what Dell is trying to do with EMC may inevitably pull focus to its suburban-Boston office. But, he says, the company will not lose its presence here completely.

"It's not like Dell [Round Rock] is going to be wiped out, because Dell is Michael Dell's baby, so he's certainly going to take care of it," Enderle said.

When asked about a potential shift to the Northeast, Dell spokesperson Lon Levitan said the newly-formed company will maintain the Round Rock campus.

"Central Texas absolutely will continue as an important hub of innovation for the combined company," Levitan said. "For years Dell has operated with multiple locations around the globe.”

Courtesy : Kut.org

Google: We're Working On The Penguin Launch Announcement

We must be close if Google is actively working on their announcement for when Penguin 4.0 goes live.

John Mueller of Google said this at the 44:30 mark into yesterday's hangout on YouTube Live. He said "we are working on an announcement for that there, so like when it's ready we will let you know."

That means, Google is already working with press and whomever to make sure they get the Penguin announcement clear and right. John then answered if the Penguin announcement will come before or after it goes live and John said "I don't know about before but we will try to get the the timing so that we don't confuse everyone."

So clearly, Google is taking this Penguin release seriously and if they are working on the announcement, it has to be coming fairly soon?

As you know, some thought the weekend update was related to Penguin, it was not. It is now over a year and 10 months, almost two years since Penguin 3.0 launched in October 2014.

Courtesy: Seroundtable.com

What is Google Penguin??

Sodexo Acquires Inspirus LLC

Sodexo, world leader in Quality of Life services, announced today it has acquired Inspirus, a 120-person strong engagement services company headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. The acquisition allows Sodexo to offer a comprehensive employee engagement proposition through state-of-the-art technology to companies of all sizes — in the U.S. and globally — delivering greater value and a stronger strategic partnership with Sodexo’s current and future customers.

“Our mission at Inspirus is to bring joy to work,” said Pete Chambers, chairman and CEO of Inspirus. “Sodexo’s acquisition of Inspirus allows the company to accelerate that mission through the immediate expansion of our global reach and capabilities, and the addition of key solutions and innovations spearheaded by Sodexo. This is an industry-changing acquisition. We are incredibly excited about the future and are honored to become part of the Sodexo family.”

Inspirus is rapidly innovating its global employee engagement solutions across categories such as service anniversaries, rewards and recognition, incentives, safety, well-being, learning, and analytics. The company’s acquisition by Sodexo will provide unparalleled operational sustainability, integration with Sodexo’s global merchant network, and global access.

“Our acquisition of Inspirus positions Sodexo to become a global leader in employee engagement solutions,” said Mia Mends, CEO at Sodexo Benefits and Rewards Services, USA. “As the world leader in services that enhance quality of life, expanding our market reach and capability in the dynamic recognition and employee engagement category is critical to our long-term vision. After a thoughtful and thorough evaluation of the market, it’s clear that Inspirus offers the best fit across multiple dimensions, from culture and vision to technology and services.”

Following the acquisition, Sodexo will fully own the Inspirus business and its customer portfolio. Inspirus will continue to operate as a separate and independent entity under the Sodexo Benefits and Rewards Services, USA division.

“With today’s acquisition, Sodexo reinforces its position in employee engagement and recognition programs, a market that is rapidly expanding,” said Denis Machuel, Global CEO of Sodexo Benefits and Rewards Services. “When we talk to global clients, it’s clear that they are looking for global programs to increase motivation and performance for their staff everywhere they operate around the world. Combining Inspirus’ industry-leading platform technology with Sodexo’s international network and 50-year commitment to improving quality of life, we become a leading player in this area, delivering best-in-class services to clients around the world.”

About Inspirus

Employee engagement is a company’s most powerful lever for driving results, building a best place to work, and contributing to a better world. The Inspirus employee engagement platform draws employees into a purpose-built employment experience and gives organizational leaders continuous measures and a full portfolio of solutions to drive employee engagement and demonstrate business impact.

Only the Inspirus platform combines an integrated rewards engine, learning, communication tools, and analytics to power 21st century talent applications spanning recognition, well-being, safety, milestone moments, community involvement, and global rewards. The Inspirus engagement platform continues decades of experience helping market-leading companies inspire their employees and bring joy to work, one experience at a time.

About Sodexo

Founded in 1966 by Pierre Bellon, Sodexo is the global leader in services that improve Quality of Life, an essential factor in individual and organizational performance. Operating in 80 countries, Sodexo serves 75 million consumers each day through its unique combination of On-site Services, Benefits and Rewards Services, and Personal and Home Services. Through its more than 100 services, Sodexo provides clients an integrated offering developed over nearly 50 years of experience: from food services, reception, safety, maintenance and cleaning, to facilities and equipment management; from Meal Pass, Gift Pass, and Mobility Pass benefits for employees to in-home assistance and concierge services. Sodexo’s success and performance are founded on its independence, its sustainable business and financial model, and its ability to continuously develop and to engage the commitment of its 420,000 employees throughout the world. Sodexo is a member of the CAC 40 and DJSI Indices.

Key Figures

€19.8 billion in consolidated revenues
420,000 employees
19th-largest employer worldwide
80 countries
32,000 sites
75 million consumers served daily
€15 billion market capitalization (as of July 7, 2016)
Forward-looking Statements

This press release contains statements that may be considered as forward-looking statements and as such may not relate strictly to historical or current facts. These statements represent management's views as of the date they are made and Sodexo assumes no obligation to update them. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

Courtesy : Businesswire.com

PropTiger acquires PropRates

Online real estate advisor PropTiger today said it has acqui-hired Mumbai-based startup PropRates, a move that will help the NewsCorp-backed realty portal to add advanced data collation tool to its offering.

With this acquisition, PropTiger aims to provide consumers real-time access to actionable price related information on the property market, PropTiger said in a statement.

"PropTiger.Com has acqui-hired PropRates, which is a pioneer in data collation tools and first in the industry who gathers actual real estate transaction data," it said in a statement. No financial details were disclosed.

The latest Acquisition comes close on the heels of the PropTiger's Acquisitionof Gurgaon-based 3DPhy in August.

"With this acquisition, PropTiger will be able to augment its existing DataLabs offerings. The advanced data collation tool developed by PropRates will enable users to make more informed choices based on actual transaction prices while buying or renting property," ProTiger.Com CEO Dhruv Agarwala said.

PropRates' exhaustive Mumbai-centric data resource will soon be available to customers on PropTiger and Makaan (bought by PropTiger last year), he added.

After Mumbai, the next phase of expansion will see another nine cities being added.

PropRates has been created by Abhishek Malhotra and Rohan Dey in 2015, with the objective of creating transparency in the real estate market.

The team of PropRates will come on board at PropTiger and will continue to build on their data gathering and analysis expertise to augment and fine-tune their offering with the available resources at Proptiger.

Courtesy : Business-Standard

Snapdeal launches private cloud platform Cirrus

Online marketplace Snapdeal on Thursday announced the launch of its private cloud platform, Cirrus, to help the company offer a more frictionless, reliable experience to customers and help save costs.

This move will enable Snapdeal to ensure that business growth is augmented with platform speed, security, and stability, it said.

The private cloud solution has been built and operationalised in under a year and is timed to handle long-term growth in traffic, Snapdeal said in a statement.

The launch follows a sustained increase in online traffic at Snapdeal and will also satiate fast growing demand for crunching big data "to build personalised and relevant experiences for consumers," it added.

"Snapdeal was born in the cloud, but public clouds stopped being cost efficient after a scale, which became the case for Snapdeal sometime last year. In a short span of 10 months, we have succeeded in building an extremely resilient, scalable and secure solution," Rajiv Mangla, Chief Technology Officer, Snapdeal said.

The cloud is built entirely on open source with OpenStack at the centre, making it among the largest OpenStack deployments of a hybrid cloud in the world.

The cloud spans three data centre regions, with a dense server architecture of 100,000 cores and 16 Peta bytes of storage.

Courtesy : Business-Standard.com

Pune’s Delta Corp Ltd. Forays Into Online Gaming; Acquires Poker Site Adda.Com For $27 Mn

Pune-based hospitality firm Delta Corp Ltd. has announced that it will acquire Gauss Networks Pvt Ltd, which operates online poker site adda52.com, in a $27 Mn (INR 182 Cr) cash and stock deal.

Gauss Networks, a software developer and SaaS firm, owns Gaussian, the entity behind adda52.com. Founded in 2013, Gauss Networks is currently valued at around $27 Mn (182 Cr). For the financial year 2015-16 the company generated a consolidated turnover of $7 Mn (INR 47.13 Cr).

Delta Corp shall not create any treasury stock but will issue its own shares to equity holders of Gaussian. The initial phase of transaction is expected to complete by June 2017 where Gaussian Networks shall be merged with Delta Corp.

Founded by IIT-Delhi alumnus Anuj Gupta, Gurgaon-based Gaussian Network is an online firm that claims to specialise in games like rummy, poker, chess, scrabble, golf and pool among others. It has products including adda52.com, adda52rummy.com, and adda52mart.com to offer online versions of card games and related products.

For Delta Corp, the acquisition will mark its entry in the online gaming space. Delta Corp also runs casinos and intends to initially acquire a 26% stake in Gauss Networks Pvt. Ltd from the founders.

Founded by Jaydev Mody, Delta Corp started off as a real estate firm and gradually entered the hospitality and gaming segment in 2008. According to their website, the company claims to have three of the six issued offshore gaming licenses issued in the state of Goa for Deltin Royale, Deltin JAQK and Deltin Caravela.

The company claims that Deltin Royale is currently India’s largest offshore gaming vessel with 950 gaming positions across 116 tables and 250 slot machines.

The digital gaming sector has received substantial attention from investors this year. According to a recent NASSCOM­ IGDA study, revenue from casual gaming in India will quadruple by 2016 to $250+ Mn. Last year, about 25 prominent games were released across platforms. The Indian gaming industry is close to $890 Mn and there are about 100 ­odd game developing firms in the country.

underDOGS, a Mumbai-based game development company, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from digital platform Intelli Reboot Digital Pvt. Ltd. In April, Reliance Entertainment announced its plans to invest in over 20 Indian gaming startups this year. The corpus of the investment fund remains undisclosed for now.  UCWeb India also announced $20 Mn fund for Indian gaming startups under its accelerator 9 Apps Dev.

Other prominent players in this space include 19Studios, Zebu Games, 99 Games, Rolocule, CreatioSoft, Games2Win and more.

Courtesy : in42.com