Your holiday in Dubai just got a little cheaper. Thanks to Dubai World's crash, travel portals and agencies like MakeMyTrip, Yatra, Cleartrip and SOTC are offering packages at prices almost 40 percent lower than a week or two ago.
Turner International is close to acquiring a controlling stake in entertainment company NDTV Imagine, which runs three entertainment channels.
Anil Ambani's radio business, Reliance Media World, which operates radio station BIG FM 92.7, will list on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange on Thursday. This makes BIG FM 92.7 the second radio station to be listed on the stock exchanges.
The eight team owners of the Indian Premier League (IPL) are all set to lock horns with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) by refusing to pay their next instalment of the franchisee fee which is due in January 2009.
VoIP services come in real handy to make cheap overseas calls.
The heat from the cricket endorsement pitch is cooling, with rates falling between 25 and 50 per cent as advertisers shy away from new deals.Industry sources say the only major cricketer to have signed on for a new brand in the last six months is Yuvraj Singh. Up-and-coming players like Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina are charging Rs 40 lakh to Rs 60 lakh but have not signed any new individual deals in the last few months.
When United States-based drug major Merck bought Schering-Plough early this month, it decided to go off the beaten track. Instead of having one managing director for the merged entity, it decided to retain both: Naveen A Rao will continue to head Merck's subsidiary MSD Pharmaceuticals in India and K G Ananthakrishnan will retain his position as MD of Schering-Plough's subsidiary Fulford India.
Almost 80% mid-sized firms plan to raise IT budget for 2010.
SET Max, the official broadcasters of the Indian Premier League (IPL)cricket tournament, has already hit a sixer with the third edition of the twenty20 league. The channel is estimated to rake in over Rs 650 crore, 30 per cent higher than it got in IPL-2.
WNS, an NYSE-listed business process outsourcing company, recorded good second quarter numbers, reflecting the improving market conditions in global markets. Neeraj Bhargava, Group CEO, attributed the performance to better volume growth and a robust pipeline. In a chat with Business Standard, he spoke about the recent stake sale talks with Warburg Pincus, appointing a new CEO and other issues.
That the flow of deals has resumed is evident from the third quarter Global TPI Index that tracks commercial contracts valued at $25 million or more.
With the US economy showing a positive annual growth rate of 3.3 per cent, the Indian IT industry - which gets over 50 per cent of its revenue from the US - is heaving a sigh of relief.
Dell says the credit goes to its campaign -- 'Take Your Own Path' -- launched in October, 2008. It was the first such campaign by Dell anywhere in the world as the company mainly relied on direct marketing earlier.
IT companies hire an average of 50 students each from engineering campuses and 20 students from management institutes. Headhunters confirm that many of the IT companies have given them mandates for hiring over the next couple of quarters. "We have seen an uptick in the hiring patterns among the IT firms. We ourselves have received good mandates from firms like Infosys and others.
The newest CEO in the Tata group brings an aggressive pace and style to India's largest IT consultancy firm.
Dell's acquisition of Perot System for $3.9 billion is being seen by most analysts as a strategic call. This will give Dell an enlarged footprint. Both the companies will get a chance to diversify. Of course, it will make Dell a service powerhouse -- globally and in the country too.
The company, which saw a pricing pressure of 5-6 per cent in the last two quarters, believes that most of the pricing negotiations are completed and about one-third of pricing pressure has been factored in the company's guidance. However, Shibulal does not rule out some tail-wind effect in this quarter as well.
BP is apparently targeting a higher percentage of offshoring.
Venture capitalists and seed fund providers receive around 500-1,200 business plans every year. The trend continued even among the student fraternity. Venture firms such as Morpheus Venture Partners and Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship that work closely with students and incubator centres have seen a spurt in activity.
With increased awareness and concern over unexpected events like the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai, Ganesh mandals (organisers of the Ganapati festival) are seeking higher insurance cover. For instance, Mumbai's most popular mandal, Lalbaughcha Raja Ganesh Mandal, has bought insurance worth Rs 4 crore (Rs 40 million).