From thousands of job losses to historic bankruptcies to Dubai debt crisis, the year had more than its share of shocks.
In 2007, India slashed the additional customs duty it charged on imported (which were up to 150 per cent of value of imports depending on the spirits), but simultaneously hiked the basic customs duties to 150 per cent from 100 per cent.
Accusing the company of deceiving consumers into believing that VitaminWater provides remarkable health benefits by marketing, advertising and labeling the VitaminWater flavours with names, including 'defense', 'rescue' and 'energy', the Center for Science in the Public Interest said the drink was basically sugar water. Coca-Cola bought Glaceau's VitaminWater for $4.1 billion in June 2007.
It was only gold, one of the oldest investment forms, that provided some solace to investors and somehow stood by its record of being a safe place to put hard cash in -- although the gain of about 25 per cent was nothing compared to what it returned in the previous years. This time around, however, the money that went into stocks lost more than half of its value on an average in comparison to a gain of 25-50 per cent over past few years.
The turmoil in the world economy has done what economists and experts could not do for years -- pushing into the day-to-day life a healthy dose of financial jargon, a lot of which has even become household words now.
A downgraded Hurricane Gustav packed with strong winds and heavy rains lashed the Gulf coast on Monday but spared New Orleans, the city which was devastated three years ago by Hurricane Katrina.Fearing a repeat of the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster, more than two million people fled their homes from coastal Mississippi, Albama and South-eastern Texas ahead of the storm, which was at one stage forecast to attain highest Category 5 before making the landfall.
India's corporate honchos spent a considerable time and energy this year at deal tables and executed over thousand transactions involving sale or purchase of equity stakes in their companies. On an average, every single day of 2007 saw about three deals being announced. This included a total of 1,047 merger and acquisitions as well as private equity deals for a total value of $68.32 billion (about Rs 2,75,000 crore).
While declining to comment on the intended takeover bid for JLR by Tata Motors, another group company, Myers said the relationship was close to four years old.
The Indica, known to Europeans as City Rover, was rolled out in November 2003 but did not succeed in the market where consumers are very choosy about the vehicles they buy.
Banking is all about leveraging, the ICICI boss said.
Merger and acquisitions is the toast of the season and a full platter of deals is expected to hit the table very soon in the consumer goods space involving leading players like HLL, Dabur, Marico and United Spirits.
Corporate India has put together a whopping $20 billion (Rs 90,000 crore) so far this year to fund its merger and acquisition bills abroad, surpassing all previous full year totals.
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