Category: Companies

Bitcoin prices soar above $47,500 after Tesla investment

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Bitcoin’s price jumped to an all-time high on Monday after Tesla said it has invested around $1.5 billion in the digital coin.

The news sent Bitcoin soaring as high as $47,513.

The electric carmaker revealed that it expected accepting payment for its cars and other products with Bitcoins in the near future.

Tesla said in a filing the decision was part of its broad investment policy as a company and was aimed at diversifying and maximizing its returns on cash.

It said it had invested an aggregate $1.5 billion in bitcoin under the changed policy and could “acquire and hold digital assets from time to time or long-term”.

Bitcoin is up almost 56 percent this year following gains of over 300 percent in 2020. It rose over 20 percent in the last 24 hours.

(With inputs from Agencies)

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

BACKSTORY: Why MakeMyTrip chose to set up its HQ in the US?

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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In 2000, when markets globally were in the grip of the dotcom mania, Deep Kalra was thinking of a venture to strike out on his own. He had to make up his mind between setting up an online travel site or an online stockbroking firm.

An MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, Kalra was bitten by the internet bug while working for GE Capital. Convinced that the internet would change the way people bought and sold services, Kalra decided to put his money where his mouth was.

Kalra eventually opted for travel, and that was how MakeMyTrip was born.

“Travel was something I think innately I really love, I have done all kinds of travel, very interesting travel and both me and my wife, well I would say were avid travelers, so I think that’s what won me over,” Kalra had said in an interview to CNBCTV18 in 2013.

“MakeMyTrip was really my baby – that was the business plan that I wrote and I got funded with,” he said.

In April 2000, Kalra’s fledgling venture got funding from a venture capital player by the name of eVentures, and by October that year, MakeMyTrip was up and running.

“People were ready to come online, they were ready to look, but not too many people were booking. So that book to look ratio was pretty abysmal in the resident Indian market,” Kalra recalls.

Luckily for Kalra and his team, there was interest from people looking to travel to India. And that was doubly positive because the net penetration in the US at that point was among the highest globally.

“The inbound market was responding. We realized that NRIs and foreigners wanting to travel to India particularly from the US where the net penetration was among the highest was actually very encouraging,” Kalra said.

The original plan had made keeping in mind travelers in India, but Kalra quickly moved in to capitalise on the changed situation.

“I think what we did very quickly and wisely now on hindsight is that we said we are going to focus on the India market and that is where we started putting in our marketing dollars that is where we built up our whole organization around, we set up a company in the US and I have an office in New York and that I think was a very smart move,” he said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Mahindra & Mahindra appoints Manoj Bhat as Group CFO

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd on Friday announced the appointment of Manoj Bhat as the Group Chief Financial Officer with effect from April 2, 2021.

His appointment comes in the backdrop of the current Deputy Managing Director and Group CFO of the Mahindra Group, Anish Shah slated to take over as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer from April 2, 2021, replacing the incumbent Pawan Goenka who will retire.

Bhat, who moves to the Mahindra Group from Tech Mahindra where he has been the CFO since June 2018, will report to Shah and will be a part of the Group Corporate Office Leadership Team, M&M said in a statement. He will lead the group’s finance organisation working closely with the group companies’ finance leadership teams on strategy, governance and controllership; providing leadership on all aspects related to financial planning and analysis, financial reporting, business planning, tax management, fundraising and treasury operations, it added.

Commenting on the appointment, Shah said: “Manoj is a proven global CFO with a track record of delivering results and creating value. He brings a compelling blend of strategic and capital allocation discipline, well-honed operating skills, and transformational leadership abilities.

He will be a strong partner as we execute our transformational plan and improve our operating results to position Mahindra for sustainable, long-term value creation.”

As Tech Mahindra Chief Financial Officer, Bhat has been responsible for the finance and secretarial functions across 160 subsidiaries and over 90 countries. He has been associated with Tech Mahindra since 2006 and has held multiple positions with global responsibilities for Business Finance, Investor Relations, Corporate Planning, and Mergers and Acquisitions, the statement said. Bhat has also played a key role in Tech Mahindra’s organic and non-organic growth initiatives, including being a part of the acquisition and integration of Mahindra Satyam and the initial public offering of Tech Mahindra in 2006.

Before joining Tech Mahindra, he was with Perot Systems and HCL Perot Systems in various leadership roles. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT, Mumbai and a postgraduate diploma in management (PGDM) from IIM, Bangalore.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Pfizer Q3 net profit up 1.56% at Rs 141 crore

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Drug firm Pfizer on Friday reported a 1.56 per cent rise in its net profit to Rs 141.24 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2020. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 139.06 crore for the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, Pfizer said in a filing to BSE.

Revenue from operations of the company stood at Rs 593.49 crore for the quarter under consideration. It was Rs 538.18 crore for the same period a year ago, it added. Shares of Pfizer closed at Rs 4,516.60 per scrip on BSE, up 0.37 per cent from their previous close.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

How to stop Facebook from snooping on your phone

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Facebook has long been in the thick of an ongoing controversy related to breach of data privacy, and it has been proven on more than one occasion how the social networking website accesses its users’ data far beyond what it needs for basic functioning.

And the snooping is not limited to just activity on the platform but also digital footprints across other recently-visited websites and services, apps that you use on your phone, and the places you drop by at, physically — more so, if you ‘check-in’ at a given location.

While it is not really possible to block the data access entirely, there are a few ways to control how much information the website can log about you. The first and most simple method is by steering clear of the Facebook mobile app. Installing the app entails giving it access to the Wi-Fi networks you connect to, other apps you have, and even the model of phone that you use, apart from all your activities and personal chats on the FB app itself.

If you wish to control how much data the social networking platform is after, go to the ‘apps and notifications’ option in Android settings, click on Facebook and visit the Facebook permissions page to block your phone’s location, contacts, camera and microphone. In iOS settings, the page is listed under Facebook.

Unfortunately, however, even after you switch off the location tracking feature, FB can make out the approximate location that you access from the internet through your IP address. According to FB, that data is needed to keep “accounts secure” and “users verified”. Moreover, since FB has several profitable partnerships with other apps and data brokers, it gets automatic data access from other apps on your phone.

But then FB is a free app, so it’s easy to fall for its give-data-access-to-improve-services trope. However, if you feel a line is being crossed, there’s a simple way out, again — uninstall the app! If you can’t do without FB, sign in through a search engine instead of the app, and keep your activity to a bare minimum — no checking in to places you visit, no tagging photos and absolutely no playing games and quizzes that invariably request data access. Take off elaborate details in your profile information and share posts judiciously.

Try to snip links between the mobile apps connected to Facebook, such as Instagram and WhatsApp, so that you can restrict third parties from accessing your data. It will keep your information secure from potential hackers too.

Facebook may offer more tools to help you limit the data collection, but the reality is that they do little in this regard and more in terms of how the information is harnessed to personalise ads. Among other tricks to curb the snooping are using a VPN to conceal your real location, lock down the privacy settings of your browser to avoid being extensively tracked by marketers, and use your browser’s incognito mode as much as you can.

Meanwhile, Apple will also start rolling out App Tracking Transparency feature by early spring.

Apple’s much-contested privacy feature that will require app developers to seek permission from users to track them for ad targeting will be launched with the next iOS 14 beta.

“We believe that this is a simple matter of standing up for our users. Users should know when their data is being collected and shared across other apps and websites – and they should have the choice to allow that or not,” Apple said in a statement.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

HAL, Rolls-Royce expand partnership in India

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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HAL and Rolls-Royce have agreed to expand their partnership in India for collaboration in two areas augmenting the supply chain for both Civil and Defence Aerospace and establishing an authorised maintenance centre for Adour Mk871 engines to support Rolls-Royce’s global customers.

Through these new collaborations, the two companies will build on their partnership of over 60 years, wherein Rolls- Royce engines have been ‘Made in India’ and supported by HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) under license from Rolls- Royce, a joint statement said.

HAL CMD R Madhavan said: “We are looking at new areas of cooperation and exports to countries which Rolls-Royce and HAL together contribute to in aerospace application.” President, Rolls-Royce India and South Asia, Kishore Jayaraman,said, “We share strong synergies with HAL and as we look at future programmes, we believe there is immense potential to further build on our shared capabilities.” .

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

BookMyShow launches on-demand movie streaming platform

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Online movie and event ticketing platform BookMyShow has launched a Transaction Video-on-Demand (TVOD) streaming platform ‘BookMyShow Stream’. The platform will feature over 600 movie titles and over 72,000 hours of content, says BMS. The platform will also have multiple Premieres every Friday with content that is exclusive to the platform.

Unlike OTT platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, BookMyShow Stream is a rent or buy platform. Users can rent a movie for a limited duration of 30 days from the time of purchase and 48 hours after a user starts playing a movie. Once they purchase it, they will have unlimited access to the movie. As per the streaming site, movies are available for rent starting from around Rs 109 and to buy from around Rs 499 in Standard Definition, with HD costing slightly more.

BMS said in a statement that the streaming platform, which has been developed in-house. will offer personalised suggestions based on a user’s preferences, transaction and behaviour on BookMyShow.

Currently, movies such as Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, Gal Gadot starrer Wonder Woman 1984 and Horror fantasy The Craft: Legacy. Besides these, films like Alone, Yes God Yes, The Peanut Butter Falcon, The Guilty, Les Miserables, Unhinged and acclaimed Russian Sci-fi thriller Coma, from premium Independent studios will premiere exclusively on BookMyShow Stream are available on the platform.

BookMyShow Stream will feature Hollywood content through partnerships with leading Global production giants including Sony Pictures, Warner Brothers and Universal Pictures amongst others. The platform will also bring films from the library of major Indian production houses such as Viacom18, Shemaroo and Rajshri Productions as also Regional content providers like Divo and Sillymonks, amongst several others.

In addition, BookMyShow Stream will host acquired content from Independent Film distributors like PictureWorks, Superfine Films, Impact Films, Kahwa Entertainment and VR films. It will also feature movies across key International Film Festivals including award-winning showcases at the Cannes Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival.

Commenting on the launch of BookMyShow Stream, Ashish Saksena, COO – Cinemas, BookMyShow said, “‘BookMyShow Stream’ is an innovation that is a result of over two decades of deep consumer understanding and robust data insights on user behaviour and preferences. It will give entertainment lovers access to highly curated cinema offerings from around the world, thanks to some long-term, marquee and exclusive partnerships with global & Indian content powerhouses. ‘BookMyShow Stream’ is a natural extension of our cinemas business and respects the existing theatrical windows for content. It empowers users to pay only for the content that they watch – a prevalent trend in other global cinema markets, as yet untapped at scale in India.

‘BookMyShow Stream’ aims to inculcate global consumption trends by providing a highly curated avenue for handpicked cinema from across the world. With flexible purchase options and a seamless user interface, this new offering furthers BookMyShow’s journey from being a gateway to an evolved curator of tent pole content experiences.”

BookMyShow Stream will be available for viewing on BookMyShow’s mobile app and website as also Apple TV, Android TV, Firestick, Chromecast and desktop browsers. BookMyShow Stream will allow users to experience features such as downloads, offline viewing and casting.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Strong performance by Jio, Bharti to buoy telecom industry growth for FY21: Fitch

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Indian telecom industry’s mobile segment is expected to log EBITDA growth of at least 40 percent in the current fiscal year, higher than 25 percent in 2019-20, helped by strong showing so far by Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, according to Fitch Ratings. EBITDA or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization is a measure of a firm’s broad financial performance.

Among other highlights, Fitch expects industry monthly ARPU (average realisation per user) to grow by 5-10 percent in 2021-22 as 2G and 3G customers gradually upgrade to pricier 4G plans. It said another tariff hike ”is possible” in 2021 given that struggling Vodafone Idea — whose ARPU is 30 percent lower than Bharti’s — may raise tariffs to improve cash flows.

Fitch said Bharti and Jio are likely to bid to renew their expiring spectrum in the upcoming auctions in March 2021 and may also bid to acquire spectrum in the sub-1GHz band, which can be used for 5G services. ”We have assumed Bharti will set aside USD 500 million in FY21 and USD 1 billion in FY22 for upfront spectrum investments. We believe that the company is unlikely to launch 5G services before 2022,” Fitch said.

It is pertinent to mention here that the government has already set the ball rolling for the spectrum auction, in which radiowaves valued at Rs 3.92 lakh crore will be put on the block. The auction in seven spectrum bands for mobile services – 700, 800, 900, 1800, 2100, 2300 and 2500MHz bands – is scheduled to start from March 1. Airtel has in fact made it clear that it is keen on a ”full footprint” of sub-GHz radiowaves across the country to boost coverage indoors and in rural areas, as it pursues an optimised spectrum strategy that balances renewal and capacity needs.

Fitch Ratings expects Indian telecom industry’s mobile segment EBITDA to increase by at least 40 percent in 2020-21, compared with 25 percent in the previous financial year. This is on account of ”strong performances” by Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel in nine months of the current fiscal year. ”EBITDA growth at Jio and Bharti will be driven by higher tariffs, user migration to 4G and high monthly data usage of 12GB-16GB per user as pandemic-led restrictions encouraged users to work from home and use remote-access technologies,” it said.

The pandemic-led economic slowdown has had little impact on Indian telcos, as data traffic continues to increase even after the lockdowns were lifted. Jio’s revenue and EBITDA grew by 33 percent and 50 percent, respectively, year-on-year in nine months of 2020-21, while Bharti posted Indian mobile revenue and EBITDA growth of 26 percent and 48 percent, respectively, in the same period.

”Jio, which leads the mobile market with 411 million customers, added 41 million subscribers during last four quarters and increased its monthly ARPU by 18 percent year-on-year to Rs 151. Bharti gained 25 million customers to reach a total subscriber base of 308 million, higher than our expectations, and reported a 23 percent year-on-year rise in monthly ARPU to Rs 166…,” it said. Fitch sees Jio and Bharti increasing their combined revenue market share to 80 percent at the expense of third-placed Vodafone Idea, which is expected to lose 50-70 million subscribers in the next 12 months.

”Sector capex is likely to remain flat in FY22, barring spectrum payments, as both Bharti and Jio front-loaded investments to expand 4G coverage and capacity and built up fibre networks and in-building coverage,” it said.

Disclosure: RIL, the promoter of Reliance Jio, also controls Network18, the parent company of CNBCTV18.com.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Zee Entertainment Q3 results: Profit rises to Rs 400 crore, but shares fall 14% a day later

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Zee Entertainment on Thursday released the results for their third quarter ended December 2020. The company reported strong earnings, with a consolidated net profit of Rs 398.01 crore.

In the year-ago period, Zee Entertainment had reported a net profit of Rs 348.60 crore, the company stated in a BSE filing.

However, during Friday’s (February 5) early trade, shares of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) dropped 14 per cent. Nifty Media sank over 4.5 per cent in a volatile morning session, with ZEEL dragging the sector. Around 11.50am on Friday, Nifty Media was trading at 1,723.20 down 78.05 points or 4.33 per cent, after touching a low of 1,704.45 during intraday trade so far.

Analysts from Kotak, while tracking the Q3 results of Zee Entertainment, have ruled out earnings upside despite improving macro because the “management has hinted a downward revision of FY2022 margin guidance citing the need to step up investments in TV/OTT”. They also said that the company’s decision to ramp up its in-house movie productions to around 30 to 40 movies a year from the earlier 10 to 12 movies annually, and the Sugarbox CAPEX would “alter capital intensity and drag cash flows”. Zee invested Rs 522 crore in Sugarbox, its tech subsidiary, last year.

Kotak has also stated that the “stock has run up and does not merit further re-rating, given the structural risk to core business and lacklustre progress of ZEE5”.

The company’s consolidated total income during the quarter under review stood at Rs 2,756.93 crore, a rise of 30 per cent compared to the year-ago period, when the figure was at Rs 2,119.60 crore. But the company stated that the results for the quarter and nine months ending December 31, 2020, were not comparable with the year-ago periods because the impact on the results for the quarter and nine months ended December 31, 2020, was primarily due to restrictions caused by COVID-19 on business activities.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow