New Call Telecom acquired chat app Nimbuzz

New call Telecom is a young, dynamic telecommunication provider in UK. It was started in 2010. Recently, New Call Telecom acquired 70% stake in Mobile Instant Messaging and VoIP Company Nimbuzz for about $175 Million. Nimbuzz will now act as a unit of New Call Telecom. Nimbuzz had previously raised funding from Naspers and Mangrove Capital.

Founded in Netherlands by Evert Jaap Lugt in 2006, Nimbuzz shifted its corporate headquarters to Gurgaon in India a couple of years ago. It claims to have 201 Million subscribers in over 200 countries. In a month, the platform processes more than a billion voice-over-internet call minutes and in excess of 100 Billion besides operating one of the largest mobile advertising platforms in South Asia, Middle East, and North Africa regions.

The messenger claims it is the only multi-lingual solution provider, offering its service in more than 25 regional languages. It provides a single tool for making voice and peer-to-peer video calls, sending instant messages and sharing data via all major communications platforms. The company had earlier collaborated with Internet service provider Spectranet Hello IP to launch International-calling platforms for Indian users to make calls abroad for 1 paisa per second through this platform.

Last year Nimbuzz had entered a partnership with Cleartrip to enable travel bookings on its platform. Called the Cleartrip buddy, users can explore travel options as well as make bookings through it. On the app, users can do the preliminary search by adding basic information for their travel plans and for the actual transaction, they are led to a co-branded WAP page. New call will integrate the capabilities of the Nimbuzz platform along with a plethora of new apps with its Wi-Fi and home broadband service in India, and eventually in other parts of the world. Nimbuzz will also become an incubator for apps for New Call.

New Call is planning for more acquisitions in the Indian market in the fields of fixed line broadband, Wi-Fi, and e-commerce. This year, Facebook bought Whatsapp in Multi-billion dollar cash and stock deal while Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten bought messaging service Viber. Whatsapp dominates the Indian Messaging and chat app market and some of the other prominent players are Line, Tencent’s WeChat, and Bharti Softbank’s Hike. 

Times Internet acquires Moneysights

Moneysights founded in 2009, by ex employees of InMobi, Mukesh Kalra, and Santosh Nalvani, was a digital platform where one could buy and manage investments products. In 2012, however, the platform had to close its operations due to lack of funding. Moneysights had earlier raised funds in June 2011 and Times Internet now buys it.

Times Internet is a unit of Bennett and Coleman and Co Ltd. was established in 1999 and operates a portfolio of web and mobile properties that engage millions of users globally. It is currently not clear whether Times Internet plans to revive Moneysights as a separate service or integrate the service to its existing properties like The Economic Times. It is not clear that whether Times Internet plans to keep Moneysights branding.

Moneysights will compete with Aditya Birla group MyUniverse that has a tie up with Network 18 financial information portal Money Control. Online insurance policy aggregator Policybazaar had also launched a financial advisory services platform called Paisabazaar in August this year. The platform sells loans, credit cards, and mutual funds among others.

In previous acquisitions, Times Internet had acquired a majority stake in coupon marketplace CouponDunia in May this year and had merged its deals site with TimesDeal with the company. It had also acquired restaurant-booking service DineOut in April this year. This was after TimesCity had tied-up with DineOut last year to offer table-booking service. it had also acquired Musicfellas.com an online market place for independent artists to sell their songs in February this year.

Times Internet had also invested in shorts, a mobile app for short top stories. It had also funded GradeStack, an online course for students. It also backed Skift.com, a New York based travel intelligence and information portal. Times Internet is a part of The Times of India Group.

Future Group and Amazon Partnership

From being dismissive about the potential of e-commerce in India to joining hands with the sector, leading ‘brick and mortar’ retailing entities seem to have had a chance of thinking on the former. A week after Future group Kishore Biyani alleged that online retailers were indulging in predatory pricing, the company announced a partnership with Amazon India.

The two companies will jointly sell goods over the internet amid growing friction between online and offline retailers over heavy discounting. Future group will sell more than 45 own labels of apparel, followed by in-house brands in the home, electronics and food categories, while the US headquartered company will handle order fulfillment and customer service for the merchandise on its portal. Both firms will also develop a new line of products across categories to be exclusively sold at Amazon and Future Group’s retail stores.

In its home market, Amazon had similar alliances with retailers such as Target Corp and Toys R US in the past decade though both sourced over time once the online seller gained scale and attracted other large brands. Following the India deal, Future Group’s four dozen own brands such as Lee Cooper, John Miller and Indigo nation will be taken off from online marketplaces where they are currently being sold.

It is also reported that Amazon is planning to open its first brick and mortar store in New York. The company main rivals in India are Flipkart, Snapdeal and other online stores. In the offline market, just three companies – Aditya Birla Madura Garments, Arvind Brands and Future Group either own or sell more than two dozen brands each, thus becoming the preferred options for any online player looking to partner retailers.

Industry insiders also said the Indian retailers move reflects a bid to expand into new distribution channels such as e-commerce in the search of growth. Last month, Snapdeal agreed to create Croma Flagship store on its e-commerce portal to sell electronics items including mobiles, tablets, and laptops. 

HTC to launch Desire eye with 13 MP cameras

HTC formerly High-Tech Computer Corporation is Taiwanese manufacturer of Tablets and Smartphones headquartered in Taiwan. HTC has launched its new suite of imaging products at its event in New York. The new range consists of HTC Desire Eye Smartphone with two 13 MP cameras, HTC RE hand-held cameras, HTC eye Experience enhanced imaging software, and Zoe collaborative video editing community.

The Desire Eye smartphone sports a 13 MP camera on the front as well as on the backside armed with BSI sensors and comes with intelligent dual- LED Flash on both cameras. It has a 5.2-inch full HD screen, a 2.3 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, a 2 GB RAM, and Android Kit-Kat operating System. It features a dual-color, waterproof unibody design with a dedicated two-step camera key for focus.

HTC EYE experience takes mobile imaging software into a new league with unique features. The HTC Eye experience helps in video-conferencing, enables face tracking for up to four people in the same room, and allows each face to face to be cropped and positioned on the screen for maximum clarity. It also gives the option of screen sharing bringing desktop functionality to smartphone based video chat along with Split capture function. It combines photos and videos taken from front and back cameras into one split-screen image or video.

RE is a small handheld camera. RE features a built-in grip sensor that instantly activates the camera on pick up, eliminating the need of a power button. There is a single shutter button, which allows one tap to capture photos and a longer press for recording video. The app will also back everything up to phone or cloud automatically. In addition, RE will offer real-time video streaming to YouTube. The RE app will be available on both Android and iOS.

HTC also introduced its new Zoe collaborative video editing app, which allows users to mix photos and videos into stylish highlight reels, themes, and soundtracks that can be shared. Zoe is available free of charge on Android now and coming on iOS later this year. However, price for HTC Desire Eye are not disclosed but it is the first phone in mobile industry with 13 MP front and rear cameras.

L & T Technology to acquire Dell engineering services

Larsen and Toubro Limited is an Indian Multinational Conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The company has business interest in engineering, construction, manufacturing goods, information technology, and financial services. It was recognized as the company of the year in Economic Times 2010 Awards.

Dell is an American privately owned Multinational computer technology based in Texas, United States. It sells personal computers, servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals, cameras, printers, and electronics built by other manufacturers. Company is well known for its innovation in Supply chain Management and E-commerce business.

L & T Technology services is going to buy Engineering services division of US based Dell Inc. The deal has got the nod of Competition Commission of India (CCI) and is waiting for approvals from US regulatory. This acquisition will help L & T establish itself as a premier engineering services provider by adding local delivery centres in North America. This strategic acquisition will strengthen L & T technology services global position in the $4 Billion transportation engineering research & development market.

Dell engineering services has delivery centres in Hyderabad and Bangalore, India. According to a comment mentioned by L & T chief executive Keshab Panda has said that the company will not spend more than $50 Million on any acquisition. In June this year, L & T Technology services acquired 74 percent stake in Thales Software India Pvt. Ltd. to grow its avionics Business. Recently, L & T said that it is planning to start its IPO process for both its technology subsidiaries i.e. L&T InfoTech and L&T Technology services by 2016.

This is the first acquisition this year in technical industry by an Indian company acquiring US Company. Other than this, Indian Internet firms are expanding their business internationally and one of them is Zomato. Jabong has already entered into UK market with a small office in London. Rocket Internet Printvenue is also entering into Australian and Singapore market. 

Wealth destroyed Mergers and acquisitions

To achieve scales, companies have to step outside and expand. These days a lot of Indian and global companies acquired and merged with other firms to expand their business. However, doing so may not necessarily add to shareholder wealth. India Inc has hardly been able to create value for its shareholders through its inorganic expansion abroad. Most of India’s big-ticket overseas acquisitions in the past five to seven years have corroded wealth. The reason for this range from high leverage taken to acquire a company, adverse changes in business cycle or failure to turn around a loss making unit. Here are some of the mergers and acquisitions that have destroyed wealth.

Tata Steel acquired Corus 4 times its size for $12.04 Billion in 2006. The valuation was more than one and a half times its initial offer and was paid monthly through debt. This European business for Tata was loss making until FY13 and has not shown strong signs of a turn around. Hindalco acquired Canadian company Novelis for $6 Billion in 2007 but the slowdown in Aluminum demand have led to the company stock stagnation at the same level. United Spirits had acquired UK based White & Mackay, in 2007 for close to 540 Million pounds. Diageo, in turn acquired USL, in 2012, which had to sell White & Mackay in 2014. Since then Stocks has fallen 18 percent.

In the past five years, India’s largest hospitality company Indian hotels consolidated operations have been impacted due to loss making international operations. For instance, Taj Boston losses have grown to Rs 523 crore from Rs 122 crore in past five years ending FY14. Tata chemicals $1 Billion acquisition of General Chemicals in 2008 has not really brought much cheer to its shareholders. Company market capitalization has not changed much since 2008. Suzlon, the world’s fifth largest wind turbine maker, continued to face challenging times after the debt funded acquisition of Senvion in 2007. Its debt serving ability hit a wall after global demand environment collapsed due to financial crisis.

Between 2010 and 2013, Fortis healthcare expanded inorganically, venturing into regions like Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, and Canada. The acquisitions strained its finances and increased interest cost on the debt pile. Shifting focus from international market to the domestic market has helped the company return to black. These are some of the Indian companies whose wealth was destroyed after the acquisitions. However, in Software Industry, much of the wealth is not destroyed after the acquisition.

Google Project "LOON"

With the aim to connect the world by internet by 2020, global companies such as Google and Facebook have started their projects. Facebook is working on their solar powered aircraft projects, which will provide internet services across the globe where accessibility of internet is not there. In the same way, Google is working and testing on project “LOON” which aims to beams internet access from satellites back to earth.

Google’s plan to network together high altitude balloons to provide Internet access to the world by the end of this year in some parts of the world. The Loon balloons have been successfully tested in New Zealand, U.S., and Brazil. The balloons stay at 60,000 feet for around 100 days, powered by solar panels and use the same LTE data systems that smartphone use. The idea may sound bit crazy but there is a solid science behind it. You can know more about this project on Google Project Loon website. (http://www.google.co.in/loon/)

The balloons are moving by adjusting their altitude to float to a wind layer after identifying the wind layer with the desired speed and direction using wind data from the NOAA. Users of the service connect to the balloon network using a special internet antenna attached to their building. The signal travels through the balloon network from balloon to balloon, then to a ground based station connected to an Internet Service provider then onto the global internet.

The system aims to bring internet access to remote and rural areas poorly served by existing provisions, and to improve communication during natural disasters to affected regions. The project was begun in 2011 under incubation in Google X and was officially announced in June 2013. With these projects by Google and Facebook, it will increase number of internet users across the globe. This will affect online-based businesses and people can search for more information. E-commerce businesses will also get affected with increase in number of internet users. Indian Government plan of Digital India also seems to be possible if this project is successful across the globe. 

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is the ability of a digital computer or computer controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings. The term is frequently applied to the project of developing systems endowed with the intellectual processes characteristics of humans. It has been demonstrated that computers could be programmed to carry out very complex tasks.

Computers carry out difficult tasks very easily. Starting from software industry to the automobile industry artificial intelligence has created a major impact. Robots are used in making and assembling cars parts. Although, artificial intelligence has created a simple way of completing work and tasks but it has taken place of humans in industry, which had made a large impact on employment. Human made machines replaced many skilled labors. What lacks in Artificial Intelligence is the emotional quotient. Many movies had been directed on Artificial Intelligence such as “Robot” in Bollywood and “Artificial Intelligence” in Hollywood.

There are a number of different forms of learning as applied to artificial intelligence. The simplest is learning by trial and error. Believe or not, we live in an era where we are surrounded by artificial intelligence at each step. Problem solving particularly in artificial intelligence, may be characterized as a systematic search through a range of possible actions in order to reach some predefined goal or solution. Problem solving methods may divide into special purpose and general purpose.

A special purpose method is tailor made for a particular problem and often exploits very specific features of the situation in which the problem is embedded. General purpose techniques used in AI is means end analysis. A step-by-step, incremental, reduction of the difference between the current state and the final goal. Recently In Japan, they created a robot which can play and talk like humans and can complete all tasks that a human body does. Android restaurants in China where robots are used to serve and cook food. In this way, Artificial Intelligence is one thing that people might see in open in India. However, it is there in some metros cities in India but still it will take time to spread on a large scale.