SoftBank-backed Inmobi has fired about 50-70 people on performance metrics. According to a source, the employees impacted are from Inmobi and the firm's lock screen-based content provider Glance. This comes even as the company announced that it will skip increments for CY23 and also undertake recruitment only when required. The Inmobi group has a total headcount of 2,600.
Dip in attrition rates and higher bench strength seem to be signalling a normal year for hiring in FY24.
Amazon has reclaimed the top spot as the world's most valuable brand despite its brand value falling 15 per cent this year from $350.3 billion to $299.3 billion, said a new report. According to brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance's report, "Global 500 2023", while Amazon is back at No 1, its brand value has fallen by over $50 billion this year, with its rating slipping from AAA+ to AAA. This is as consumers evaluate it more harshly in the post-pandemic world. Brand Finance's research has found that perception of customer service at Amazon has fallen - at the same time as delivery times have lengthened.
'Enterprises have become more demanding in terms of their productivity expectation from their employees.'
Among the many exits from the billionaire's club in 2022 are D Uday Kumar Reddy of Tanla Solutions (net worth down 66 per cent), Sushil Kanubhai Shah of Metropolis Healthcare (down 65.7 per cent), Vijay Shekhar Sharma of One97 Communications (down 66 per cent), and C K Birla (down 43.4 per cent).
Food delivery aggregator Swiggy's losses widened 2.24 times to Rs 3,628.9 crore during last financial year, as its expenses surged 227 per cent in a year. This is even as the decacorn's revenue jumped more than twofold to Rs 5,704.9 crore in FY22, according to details from company research platform Tofler. While the company's losses surged from a base of Rs 1,616.9 crore in FY21, its total expense in FY22 touched Rs 9,748.7 crore, from Rs 4,292.8 crore a year ago.
'Criticism is one thing, and cynicism is quite another.' 'However, we are undaunted by this negativity because we know the truth.'
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has been one of the top performing companies in the large cap space under the chairmanship of Mukesh Ambani and has beaten the broader market both in terms of earnings growth and shareholder returns. In the last 20 years, RIL's net profit has grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.7 per cent while its net sales have grown at a CAGR of 15.1 per cent. RIL's net profit at consolidated level has jumped 18.5 times in the last two decades growing from Rs 3280 crore in FY02 to Rs 60,705 crore in FY22; its net sales grew 16.6 times from Rs 42,129 crore to Rs 6.99 trillion.
'...helping the government, citizens, and companies get the balance right.' 'As great as technology is, these are societal questions, not just technical ones.'
Manufacturing companies have been outperformers on the bourses in the current year, leading to a rise in their weighting in the benchmark index. Companies in sectors such as FMCG, automobile, pharmaceuticals, metals, cement, and agrochemicals now account for 25.43 per cent of the Nifty 50 index, up 88 basis points from 24.55 per cent at the end of December last year and a record low of 23.1 per cent at the end of CY20. The manufacturing sector is now dominated by FMCG majors such as Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Asian Paints, Nestle, and Britannia, accounting for 45 per cent of the combined market cap of all manufacturing companies in the index.
But the industry's chief executives remain confident of the long-term growth potential of NBFCs in India, given their specialised lending on the asset side, last-mile reach, and a well-capitalised balance sheet. "Over the years, NBFCs have faced many crises.
Banks are gaining market share at the expense of non-bank lenders such as housing finance companies, retail lenders, and those giving gold loans. There has been a steady decline in the market share of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) in the credit market as banks have stepped up lending. NBFCs' share declined to a five-year low of 19.8 per cent in the first half of FY23, down from 20.3 per cent in H1FY22, and an all-time high of 23.1 per cent in H1FY19.
Adani Enterprises' proposed Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 200 billion) fundraising via fresh issue of equity shares through a public offer would be the fourth biggest by Indian companies, excluding banks and non-banking financial companies.
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is likely to join the list of Big Tech companies going for large-scale layoffs. With this, almost the entire universe of FAANG - acronym for Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google - has now come under the layoff turbulence hitting tens of thousands of tech jobs around the world. Reports surfaced on Tuesday about the Mountain View (California)-headquartered tech giant planning to fire around 10,000 employees.
India's traditional PC market, inclusive of desktops, notebooks, and workstations declined by 11.7 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in Q3CY22 (Jul-Sep) after 8 consecutive quarters of growth despite strong shipments of 3.9 million units, according to new data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker. All segments declined except the government, which grew by 91.5 per cent YoY on the back of government orders, leading to strong growth in the third consecutive quarter. While the desktop and workstation categories grew by 23.4 per cent and 17.6 per cent YoY respectively, the notebook category declined by 19.5 per cent YoY.
Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Meta, summed it up well as he explained the reason for the company sacking 13 per cent of its employees. He said no one predicted that the boom for digital services during the Covid pandemic would die out. "Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended.
Slowing growth and execution challenges for Cognizant (CTSH) may well allow Infosys to overtake the former after a decade. Cognizant had marched ahead of Infosys in terms of revenue in the first quarter of financial year 2012-13. The Nasdaq-listed IT services firm's performance in Q3 and the guidance for Q4 and full-year 2022 suggest that it could take time for Cognizant to see the expected improvement in performance from its decision to restructure.
US media reports that Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, could be the latest technology giant to downsize its workforce have triggered trepidation among its 300-400 employees in India, according to people familiar with the matter. "We have not heard much about the impact (of downsizing) on India. "It's a wait-and-watch situation. Certainly, there is uncertainty," said a source.
Google has said that it is pausing enforcement of Google Play billing system (GPBS) for developers in India. This comes after the Competition Commission of India (CCI) imposed a penalty of Rs 2,275 crore in two cases and an immediate cease-and-desist order of its policies of running the Android Mobile device and Play Store ecosystem. In a statement, the company said, "Following the CCI's recent ruling, we are pausing enforcement of the requirement for developers to use Google Play's billing system for the purchase of digital goods and services for transactions by users in India.
In the future of work, companies will have to embrace terms like moonlighting, gig work, flexi work as 'on-demand talent in a Cloud' can be a reality, says Milind Lakkad, chief human resource officer of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). In some form or the other, gig work, flexiworking - and even moonlighting - will have to be welcomed by companies, says Lakkad. As a first step towards embracing these, TCS is trying to bring all these opportunities for its own employees within the company.