Archive for May, 2007

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eBay’s StumbleUpon Acquisition: Confirmed at $75 Million

Thursday, May 31st, 2007

As we expected earlier today, eBay has confirmed an all cash $75 million acquisition of social discovery service StumbleUpon. eBay says StumbleUpon fits will with their “goal of pioneering new communities based on commerce and sustained by trust” and helps them learn more about newly emerging community based businesses.

Although you can imagine “StumbleUpon Shopping” coming soon, eBay is leaving the company alone and taking a wait-and-see approach. The corporation will remain completely intact, except for the addition of eBay’s Michael Buhr, who will serve as general manager for the product.

Throughout 2007, StumbleUpon has seen tremendous growth. They currently have over 2.3 million registered users, serve 5 million daily recommendations, and are experiencing a 150% year over year growth rate. Here’s a quick look at their latest stats from comScore:

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Indian Hotels to invest Rs 200 cr for 17 budget hotels

Thursday, May 31st, 2007

Indian Hotels Company Ltd’s [Get Quote] Ginger Hotels will invest over Rs 204 crore (Rs 2.04 billion) to set up 17 budget hotels in tier-II cities in the next 12 months.

“In the next 12 months, the total number of Ginger hotels will go up to 25 from the current eight. Each 100-room Ginger hotel on an average will be set up at a cost of Rs 11-12 crore (Rs 110-120 million), excluding the land cost, which varies from city to city,” Prabhat Pani, chief executive officer, Roots Corporation, which operates the Ginger gen-next ‘smart basics’ hotels chain, told PTI.

Roots Corporation is a 100 per cent subsidiary of IHCL, which also promotes the Taj Group of hotels. The investment would be financed by a mix of debt and internal accruals.

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Motorola plans 4,000 job cuts

Thursday, May 31st, 2007

Cell phone maker Motorola Inc said Wednesday it will cut another 4,000 jobs as part of a plan aimed at improving sagging financial and operational results.

The company already is in the process of eliminating 3,500 jobs as part of a two-year cost-cutting plan to save $400 million. “Those layoffs, announced in January, are to be completed by June 30,” it said.

Motorola said it would save another $600 million in 2008 by cutting 4,000 more workers, prioritizing investments and putting controls on discretionary spending and general and administrative expenses.

“Long-term, sustainable profitability is, and always has been, Motorola’s top priority,” Chief Financial Officer Tom Meredith said.

“Today’s actions are an update to the commitment we made to drive out additional costs, and a continuation of the plan we announced in January,” he added.

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No free roaming atleast for now

Thursday, May 31st, 2007

Karunanidhi’s birthday is just three days away but there’s a party pooper as former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran’s promise of zero roaming charges is unlikely to happen.

The new minister, DMK stalwart, A Raja hasn’t been able to convince state owned telecom companies to scrap roaming charges.

Though India’s largest telecom company BSNL is working hard to cut roaming rates, sources insist that scrapping roaming is not possible because roaming entails an interaction between two players that has to be charged.

However, BSNL is working hard to reduce roaming rates further. NDTV has learnt that the new plan could have a rental of about Rs 490 with 250-300 minutes of zero roaming.

Beyond that incoming calls on roaming will be charged at Re 1 instead of the current Rs 1.75 and both intra and inter circle outgoing calls will be charged a roaming cost of Re 1. Down from the present Rs 1.40 per minute and Rs 2.40 per minute respectively.

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Vodafone to sell first tranche of Bharti stake by March

Tuesday, May 29th, 2007

NEW DELHI: Vodafone announces that it will sell the first tranche of its stake in Bharti Airtel by March. The company has decided to off-load 5.6% of its shares in Bharti Airtel for $1.6 bn.

Vodafone stake sale in Bharti Airtel works out to be Rs 607 per share. The sale is expected at a 27 per cent discount CMP.

Bharti shares take a hit, slip down by 2.5% in the wake of the Vodafone announcement.

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Govt plans scheme to tackle effect of rising rupee

Tuesday, May 29th, 2007

The Centre on Tuesday said it is working on a scheme to refund local taxes and levies to labour- intensive industries with little import content, to offset the impact of the appreciating rupee, which ended at a nine-year high yesterday.

“The rupee appreciation is a cause of concern for exporters and manufacturing firms… we are looking at framing a scheme for labour-intensive industries with no or very little import content to refund the local taxes and levies,” minister of commerce and industries Kamal Nath said, while spaking to press on the sidelines of the 3rd India-GCC Industrial Forum in Mumbai.

“The rupee rise is a concern and the ministry of commerce is in discussions with the RBI… the rise is also connected with international factors like fall in the dollar. We are also in discussion with the export council on what should be the way forward,” Nath said.

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