Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka ditches Cebit India to join PM Modi

Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka, who was to be the first keynote speaker at Cebit India’s inaugural edition, is dropping out to join Prime Minister Narendra Modi's three-nation, 10-day tour beginning Wednesday

 

 Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka, who was to be the first keynote speaker at Cebit India's inaugural edition, is dropping out to join Prime Minister Narendra Modi's three-nation, 10-day tour beginning Wednesday.


Sikka will be part of the business delegation that accompanies Modi to Myanmar and Australia. Modi will also go to Fiji. It's not clear if Sikka will be part of the entire tour.

Cebit, the world's largest and most international computer expo, has been planning its India edition for over a year. The three-day event, starting in Bengaluru on Wednesday, is organized around the theme 'New perspectives in IT business', and Sikka was to set the ball rolling with a talk on 'Software and the future of the services industry'.

When contacted, Mehul Lanvers-Shah, MD of Cebit India, said, "We have just been informed that he will give a video keynote now."

The event, organized by Germany's Deutsche Messe, includes a few keynote addresses, a number of panel sessions, and an extensive exhibition. Other keynote speakers include Mark McDonald, MD and digital business strategy lead in Accenture, Helmut Schutt, CIO of Daimler trucks, buses and vans, Vanitha Narayanan, MD of IBM India, Kumud Srinivasan, president of Intel India, Marten Pieters, CEO of Vodafone India, and Nikhil Pathak, country GM of Schneider Electric India.

Samsung set to launch Galaxy Note Edge in India: Report

Samsung is all set to bring the limited edition version of its latest flagship phablet Galaxy Note – Note Edge – to the Indian market. 

It appears that Samsung is all set to bring the limited edition version of its latest flagship phablet Galaxy Note — Note Edge — to the Indian market.

According to a report by Sammobile, Samsung Galaxy Note Edge, is nearing its global launch.

 The smartphone is so far available only in the US, Japan and home country South Korea. According to the report, three different models will be launched in different countries. Of the three — SM-N915G, SM-N915FY and SM-N915F — the first one will be retailed in India.

Samsung Galaxy Note Edge sports a 5.6-inch Quad-HD+ (1600x2560 pixel) Super AMOLED display. The phablet boasts of a unique design wherein the right edge of the screen is curved and provides quick access to frequently used apps, alerts and device functionality.

It is powered by a 2.7GHz quad-core processor. The smartphone features a 3.7MP front camera and 16MP rear camera. It has 3GB RAM and comes in two storage variants — 32GB and 64GB, expandable up to 128GB via MicroSD card.



Samsung had announced that Galaxy Note Edge would be available in selected markets only as it was a 'limited edition concept.' The company intends to sell only 1 million units across the world in 2014.

 Other than India, Galaxy Note Edge is expected to be launched in Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Australia, Russia, Singapore and Italy.

In US, the retail price of the device is $945.99 (Rs 58,200) while in Europe, the device is likely to be priced at around 899 (Rs 68,700 approximately).

Data tariffs may fall 20% with Reliance Jio's entry: Fitch

The entry of Reliance Jio Infocomm in the telecom space will intensify competition and may bring data tariffs down by at least 20%, Fitch Ratings has said

 

The entry of Reliance Jio Infocomm in the telecom space will intensify competition and may bring data tariffs down by at least 20%, Fitch Ratings said today.

It, however, said no tariff wars are expected as witnessed during the 2009-2013 period.

"The likely entry of new telco Reliance Jio, which is a part of Reliance Industries Ltd in 1H15 will intensify competition in the data segment, and may cause data tariffs to decline by at least 20%," Fitch said in its 2015 outlook for Indian telecommunications services.

Reliance Industries had announced that it would launch commercial 4G telecom service of RJio in 2015 entailing investment of Rs 70,000 crore.

Fitch said Jio will focus largely on data and may have a limited impact on the incumbents' core voice business, given a weak "voice-over-LTE" technology ecosystem and lack of affordable 4G-compatible handsets in India.

"We do not foresee a re-run of the tariff wars of 2009-2013, which led to a severe decline in industry tariffs," Fitch said.

Fitch expects the top four Indian telcos — Bharti Airtel Limited, Vodafone India, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications — to increase their revenue market share to around 83% by 2015 from the current 79% in the $-30 billion industry.

"Industry revenue will grow by at a mid-single-digit rate in 2015, driven by data services. The top four telcos' 2015 average operating EBITDA margin will be mostly unchanged at 32-33% (2014: 32%) as a decline in data tariffs will offset a gradual rise in voice tariffs," it said.

Fitch said the top four telcos will generate a minimal free cash flow (FCF) margin due to higher capex and flat EBITDA; the 2015 industry capex/revenue ratio could rise as fast-growing data traffic requires supporting investment.

Limited spectrum sale disappointing: Vodafone

British telecom giant Vodafone on Tuesday said that the government's plans to auction limited spectrum in February is "disappointing and frustrating" and will shake investor confidence in the Indian government.

The company, which is India's second-biggest operator behind Bharti Airtel, said that spectrum crunch is hampering business growth and impacting new investments at a time when data is growing rapidly and subscriber base is getting fatter. "Even regulator Trai has recommended that fresh auctions should take place only when there is enough spectrum. With limited amount of spectrum on sale, the scenario is disappointing and frustrating for operators," Vodafone India MD & CEO Marten Pieters said. "It will be wrong to have an auction with inadequate spectrum and will be quite a disaster for operators." While Trai had made a pitch for a mega sale of mobile spectrum, including that used for the high-speed 3G and 4G services, the Department of Telecom as well as the inter-ministerial Telecom Commission are not too enthused about the idea, especially when defence is yet to vacate 3G spectrum.

The government has lined up sale of 184 MHz spectrum in the 900 MHz band (all vacated after expiry of licences) and 104 MHz in the 1800 MHz frequency for the next round.

GPS, app for Roadways buses soon

The GPS installed by Haryana Roadways in its buses will be used to develop a bus service mobile application.

 The GPS installed by Haryana Roadways in its buses will be used to develop a bus service mobile application. The app, that will be available for download on all smartphones, will provide information about Roadways buses like the estimated time of arrival, time of departure from depot and the exact location of the bus at any given point of time.

The GPS system will be integrated with clocks that are to be installed on all 120 bus queue shelters that are likely to come up in the city in a month or two.

The overall cost to develop the software will be around Rs 2-3 lakh, said Rohit Yadav, general manager of Haryana Roadways. "The integration of software will be done by the same company that has installed the GPS system in the buses," he added.

Commuters will also be able to file formal complaints of speeding and misbehaviour by drivers and conductors through an SMS that will be automatically sent to the Haryana Roadways system.

"We expect the entire project to be over by January 15-20 when the commuters in Gurgaon will be able to check the expected time of arrival of a particular bus at any bus stop," said Yadav.

Yahoo buys digital ad service BrightRoll for $640 million

Yahoo is buying digital video advertising service BrightRoll for $640 million in the Internet company's latest attempt to boost its revenue after years filled mostly with financial futility.

SAN FRANCISCO: Yahoo is buying digital video advertising service BrightRoll for $640 million in the Internet company's latest attempt to boost its revenue after years filled mostly with financial futility.

The acquisition announced on Tuesday marks Yahoo's first major purchase since reaping a $9.4 billion windfall in September by selling part of its stake in a rapidly rising internet star, Chinese e-commerce service Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

Yahoo Inc. has promised to distribute at least half of the $6.3 billion in after-tax proceeds from the Alibaba stake sale to its shareholders. That gives CEO Marissa Mayer the option of spending the rest on acquisitions that could enable the Sunnyvale, California, company to recover some of the ground that it has lost to rivals Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. in the booming online ad market.

BrightRoll, based in San Francisco, helps to automatically place ads in videos displayed on personal computers and mobile devices. Since its founding in 2006, it has built relationships with most of the biggest advertisers in the U.S., helping the service generate more than $100 million in annual revenue, according to Yahoo.

That makes the BrightRoll deal look quite different from the only larger acquisition that Yahoo has made since hiring Mayer as its CEO in July 2012. Mayer bought online blogging service Tumblr for $1.1 billion last year, even though that New York company hadn't yet proven it could make money.

In contrast, BrightRoll already is profitable, according to Yahoo. Meanwhile, Tumblr isn't expected to bring in $100 million in annual revenue until next year, at the earliest.

"Acquiring BrightRoll will dramatically strengthen Yahoo's video advertising platform,'' Mayer predicted in a Tuesday blog post.

Investors seemed moderately enthused about the deal. Yahoo's stock added 5 cents to $49.10 in extended trading.

If Mayer is right, BrightRoll could help Yahoo reverse a long-running decline in display advertising _ a category consisting of video pitches and other marketing with a visual element. Through the first nine months of this year, Yahoo's display advertising revenue had declined 4 percent from last year to $1.2 billion after subtracting commissions.

Meanwhile, ad revenue at Google and Facebook has been steadily rising by 20 percent or more in most quarters as marketers pour money into digital campaigns to connect with consumers spending more time gazing into screens on PCs and mobile devices.

Yahoo's share of the worldwide ad market now stands at about 2.4%, down from 3.9% in 2011, according to the research firm eMarketer. Facebook's share has climbed from 3.6% in 2011 to a projected 8% this year while Google has held on to a 32% share of a much larger market.

Mayer is under more pressure to reverse those trends now that Yahoo has brought in more money from its recent sale of Alibaba stock. What's more, Yahoo still owns 384 million shares of Alibaba stock currently worth $44 billion. The Alibaba holdings are the main reason that Yahoo's stock has been hovering around its highest levels in more than 14 years.

Activist shareholder Starboard Value LP issued a challenge to Mayer in September in a letter critical of the more than 30 acquisitions that she had previously made for a total of about $1.6 billion. Those acquisitions seemed to make little financial sense, according to Starboard, which urged Mayer to consider buying rival AOL Inc. as a way to save money and bring in more ad revenue.

Yahoo so far hasn't given any indication that it's interested in joining forces with AOL, which currently has a market value of about $3.5 billion.

Mayer has said that Yahoo is considering ways to minimize taxes on future sales of its Alibaba stock, a step that Starboard had also implored the company to consider.

Starboard didn't immediately respond to requests for comment about the BrightRoll acquisition.