On September 26, HCL Technologies announced the terms of a cash offer to acquire the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Axon at a price of 650 pence per Axon share. On October 8, HCL EAS, the indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of HCL Technologies, acquired 3,01,623 Axon shares which represent approximately 0.47 per cent of the current issued share capital of Axon.
According to the Trai latest report, only around 18 million telephone subscribers out of the total subscriber base of more than 344 million have opted to register in NDNC. Of these, urban areas like Delhi and Mumbai constitute around 40 per cent along with states like Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa.
Sunil Bharti Mittal's Bharti Airtel retained the top rank with a market share of 33.21 per cent and a total user base of 77.48 million. Vodafone-Essar added 1.87 million and maintained a market share of 23.41 per cent. COAI, which does not include Reliance Telecom, estimates RT added at least 370,000 subscribers in the month,
On the contrary, the fall in the US markets was lower with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones both declining by around 9 per cent and 6 per cent respectively, while emerging markets lost around 18 per cent during the month. Pessimism in the financial markets following the filing for bankruptcy by Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch's sell-off, the AIG bailout and perceived uncertainty around the US bailout package added to investor fears.
The service, which enables users to form communities and blog using their mobile phones and has a user base of 12 million, has received the investment from venture capital funds Helion Ventures and Charles River Ventures. The funds will be used to fund business growth, product development and increased sales and marketing, said Rakesh Mathur, CEO and co-founder of SMS GupShup.
During the arguments in the court, Justice J N Patel remarked that the court would like to spend the Diwali vacation writing out the order and would like the parties involved to finish their arguments before that. "We are not hearing the matter because Reliance Industries is a big company. We are hearing it because it is in the nation's interest," remarked Justice Patel.
Exports of goods during August rose 27 per cent to $ 16 billion, from $ 12.61 billion in the same month last year. Imports rose sharply by over 51 per cent at $ 29.94 billion due to the increase in the value of crude oil imports. The government is worried about the rising trade deficit. "It is a cause of concern. But the fundamentals of the economy are strong and we will be able to absorb it," said a commerce ministry official.
The company plans to sell 92,65,275 equity shares of Rs 10 each for cash at a price to be decided entirely through a book-building process. The issue would constitute 11 per cent of the fully diluted post-issue paid up capital of the company. Club Mahindra Holidays plans to raise Rs 400-450 crore (Rs 4-4.5 billion) from the IPO, sources said.
The centre will have a computer room with 20 PCs with Internet capability, a music room comprising instruments like drums, tabla, guitar, sitar, harmonium and synthesiser, and a library room with books and CDs ranging from academic, entertainment and general knowledge.
The Anil Ambani group company has soft-launched the service in Mumbai, Delhi, Gujarat, Punjab Bangalore and Chennai. The company has provided GSM phones to its employees for testing the service, according to sources.
CPI (M) General Secretary Prakash Karat called all 'non-Left' parties to resist Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram's financial sector reforms plans. In a recent article in People's Democracy, Karat wrote, 'After the burst of the real estate bubble and the financial crisis in the United States, one would have expected this ardent advocate of financial sector reforms to rethink. But that has not happened.'
The current sub-prime crisis, in the medium-to-long term period, will accelerate global sourcing adoption as financial institutions are exercising the option to cut costs. The institute predicts that outsourcing from the financial services sector have the potential to increase 40-45 times the current market size over the next five years, with key drivers of growth coming from cost pressures and the timely advent of more vertical-specific offerings by offshore suppliers.
The fund said oil prices are still at double the levels recorded in end-2006, even after the 40 per cent fall in prices from the peak they reached in July this year. Food prices too are still above end-2006 levels. Because of this, fuel importing low-income countries will see their import bill increase by 3.2 per cent of their GDP, while food importing countries will spend additional amount equivalent to 0.8 per cent of GDP on food.
A McKinsey & Company report also said organised retail was expected to grow from the current 5 per cent to 14-18 per cent of the total retail market in 2015. It added that retail in India could be profitable but not with 'cut and paste' global formats. The greatest challenge would be to maintain the organisation's focus on profitability while cultivating flexibility.
With a market share of 16.6 per cent in mergers and acquisitions and 14.2 per cent in fund raising through the equity route, the investment banking arm of the German financial behemoth has become the numero uno investment bank in the country.
Airlines have been conducting fuel efficiency analysis, which involves fuel calculations on a daily basis, based on the availability of optimum routes in terms of wind, flight levels and overflying charges, route rationalisation to prune the number of flights and increase utilisation. They also want the Centre to grant ATF a declared goods status, which would result in a uniform levy of 4 per cent sales tax at the state level.
"Land is limited, land is precious, land holds a special value to farmers and their families. We have to be sensitive to those who lose land to the industry knowing fully well that the industry also needs space. Emprical evidence shows that options other than compulsory land acquisition are also possible," said West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi. Without mentioning Singur even once, his speech at the ICC highlighted the farmers' interest.
The Kerala State IT Infrastructure Limited is planning to set up an IT city and IT parks across the state, which would have a seating capacity of 200,000 people by the year 2015. KSITI will promote these projects through the public-private partnership model. N Radhakrishna Nair, director, KSITI and chief executive officer, Trivandrum Techno Park, said that Kerala, which was promoting tourism as 'God's own tourism country', now want to promote it as 'God's own e-state.'
The new package put together by intermediaries includes higher compensation for land to land losers and more compensatory wages for registered tenant farmers (called bargadars), unregistered tenant farmers and agricultural labourers, and involvement of Tata Motors in the Singur resolution process, said sources close to the development.
"These are unforeseen events and we do not see any further impact from other clients. We are in talks with both the seller and the purchaser, as the seller has mentioned our name in the list of critical services suppliers. The situation will be clear in a week," said P D Mundhra, executive director, eClerx Services.