The Aditya Birla group's wireless telephony firm Idea Cellular has agreed to buy Spice Communications in a three-stage deal in which minority shareholders of Spice would be given an option either to swap their shares for the Birla group firm or sell them in an open offer.
Telecom to Telekom Malaysia in an attempt to complete the merger, sources involved in the negotiations said, declining to be identified. The group has hired Enam Financial as adviser to the transaction. Investment banking sources said the lawyers from both the parties are now busy structuring the deal so that the acquisition meets all the regulatory norms of the country and the Birlas retain control over Idea Cellular.
Idea Cellular, the Aditya Birla group firm that is on the verge of taking over Spice Communications by buying out B K Modi's 41 per cent stake, is sounding out its bankers to raise funds to upgrade in the struggling telecom operator's network and technology.
Kolkata-based personal care products maker Emami, which made a hostile takeover bid for Zandu Pharmaceuticals, on Friday forced the latter to withdraw a plan to offer preferential shares to its promoters.Zandu had sent notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange late on Thursday evening saying its board would meet to discuss a preferential share issue to the promoters and directors.Emami lawyers swung into action and sent legal notice early on Friday to Zandu's board.
The rural BPO centre will be established by the Tata Business Support Services -- the BPO wing and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons -- in partnership with Tata Steel Rural Development Society -- a corporate NGO managed by the Tata Group for the last 60 years. To start with, it is expected to employ around 200 people. Sources close to the development said the company has already recruited the first batch of the executives for the BPO unit.
Wipro, the $5 billion company with interests in IT services, consumer care, lighting and furniture, is entering a new set of businesses which will enable the company to leverage its growth on the clean energy and agriculture sectors. The company is readying a plan to include alternate energy, water treatment, food and agriculture businesses under its infrastructure business - Wipro Infrastructure Engineering Limited.
Ravi Singh aims to empower politicians by effectively planning campaigns using software technology. It's election time, and Ravi Singh, the founder of US-based ElectionMall Technologies, knows what it means to be in India.
Infosys BPO, which started knowledge process outsourcing services as a part of its BPO offerings four years ago, is aiming to make Gurgaon the hub for its KPO business.
India's third-largest software company, Wipro, has initiated a second round of major business and executive changes within a few weeks. A fortnight ago, the company announced the appointment of Suresh Vaswani and Girish Paranjpe as joint chief executive officers of Wipro Technologies, the company's global IT arm.
While consulting firms and investment bankers preferred not to participate in the lateral placements as usual, sources say that companies such as KPMG, Aditya Birla Group, Barclays Bank, Microsoft, Infosys and Capgemini have issued the maximum number of offers.
Sources say Carnegie Mellon's president Jared L Cohon, who was in Bangalore recently, held discussions with senior state officials in this regard. The university is planning to establish a skeleton presence in Bangalore to study the market condition before starting a full-fledged campus here. They want to help the IT sector in the country secure quality manpower.
Ordyn bagged the contract after qualifying in a competitive bidding process in which global giants such as Huawei Technologies, ZTE, HFCL, IComm and Arasor took part.
During the third quarter ended December 31, 2007, the company got its first $100 million (Rs 400 crore) account, which it had bagged almost four years ago as a $200,000 (Rs 80 lakh) per annum account.
Access to market is going to be the major problem faced by start-up IT firms looking to hit the market with innovative products or solutions. Access to venture or angel funding, which was considered the prime issue a couple of years ago, has now been relegated to second or third position.
India's second-largest IT services exporter targets Australia, Japan, South Africa.
The currency appreciation has increased the capital (in dollars) required for starting a business in India. The rising cost (in rupees) of employees, building space and infrastructure has only made matters worse.
In what may well be the first step towards establishing the first "human colony" on the moon, the Indian Space Research Organisation is examining the possibility of establishing a robotic set-up or unmanned mission on the moon.
Indian software product companies, which are planning to raise venture capital funding, will have to ensure that their domestic and emerging market focus is sharp. Indian IT start-ups, which are introducing software products, have better prospects of availing VC funding, according to many VCs. It has always been difficult for start-ups in the software product space to compete with the global software giants, even in the domestic market, they note.
Indian IT companies such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro, Infosys and Satyam, besides MNCs such as IBM, are working towards becoming carbon neutral while simultaneously converting their expertise in this area to help global companies become environment-friendly.
According to analysts, the first two quarters are usually dull for the company historically, hence growth will be higher in the subsequent two quarters. If Wipro Infotech achieves the $1 billion mark, it would make Wipro the first Indian company to touch the figure through its largely domestic market-focussed arm. It derives about 90 per cent of its revenue from India.
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