Hotmail is Not being Killed Off: Bhatia
Transcription
Hotmail is Not being Killed Off: Bhatia
Corporate 3 WWW.ECONOMICTIMES.COM In a Nutshell Unitech Moves CLB to Hotmail is Not being Killed Off: Bhatia E-mail service is being enhanced to break Gmail’s hegemony, says Hotmail’s co-founder Sabeer Bhatia Stall Uninor Asset Auction Sabeer Bhatia, the Indianborn co-founder of Hotmail, has hailed Microsoft’s decision to relaunch the iconic email service as Outlook.com, as the technology major not only looks to break the hegemony established by Google’s Gmail in recent years, but also plans to bring about greater integration between social networking and email services. Speaking to Biswarup Gooptu from San Francisco, Bhatia, who along with co-founder Jack Smith, sold the email service to Microsoft in 1997 for $400 million, explains the need for the rebranding, which he insists, is not the “phasing out of Hotmail,” but a move targetted Q&A NEW DELHI Unitech on Thursday approached the Company Law Board (CLB) to stall the auction of Uninor’s assets, a day after its telecom joint venture with Norway’s Telenor invited companies to bid for assets at the base price of `. 4,000 crore. The real estate developer that owns one-third of Uninor, asked CLB to disallow the asset sale, since Telenor may be the only possible bidder, or any transfer of business. Unitech also challenged the authenticity of the July 31 board meeting of Uninor, in which a resolution for hiving off the telecom business was passed A Clarification In response to a news story, ‘Govt Wins, BlackBerry Agrees to Hand Over its Keys to India' in the edition dated August 2, RIM has clarified that it cannot provide access to secure encrypted BlackBerry enterprise communications. The company said it is providing an appropriate lawful access solution that enables India’s telecom operators to be legally compliant with respect to their BlackBerry consumer traffic, to the same degree as other smartphone providers do in India. “But this does not extend to secure BlackBerry enterprise communications. As we have stated on several occasions, RIM cannot access information encrypted through BlackBerry Enterprise Server as RIM is not ever in possession of the encryption keys,’’ said a company statement. Strides, Ranbaxy in Tie-up with Gilead for HIV Generic NEW DELHI Gilead Sciences has tied up with Ranbaxy Laboratories and Strides Arcolab under which the American firm will transfer technology and fund the Indian companies to make generic cost versions of its HIV medicine emtricitabine (FTC) for developing countries at a lower cost. The deal covers both single tablet emtricitabine sold under the brand Emtriva and fixed-dose combinations of emtricitabine marketed as Truvada. NIIT Tech Promoters Sell 7% Stake at .̀ 267 a Share MUMBAI Rajendra S Pawar and Vijay K Thada- ni, the promoters of NIIT Technologies, have sold 44.36 lakh shares of the company through bulk deals on the BSE at `. 267 a share. The stake sale amounts to 7% of the company’s equity. Following these transactions, promoters’ holding in the company has come down to 31%. Citigroup Global, Birla Sunlife Trustee and Segantii India Mauritius were some of the buyers. Sebi Fines 2 Cos for Circular Trading in Videocon MUMBAI Sebi has imposed a penalty of ` . 2 lakh each on Mansukh Securities & Finance and Intec Shares for circular trading in shares of Videocon Industries way back in 2004. The two entities have been found to have violated norms related to synchronised or circular trading while dealing in shares of Videocon on behalf of their clients. Hotel Leela to Issue Pref Shares to Promoters MUMBAI Hotel Leelaventures has decided to issue equity shares to promoters on a preferential basis for an aggregate value not exceeding `. 100 crore. The board has also approved raising of funds up to `. 1,000 crore through various options. NSE Plans to Join Action From Page 1 “It’s critical we have more such platforms, because they can act as avenues for greater influx of seed capital in India, which is something that the entrepreneurial ecosystem severely lacks in India,” says Sunil Goyal, chief executive and fund manager of Your Nest Angel Fund, a Sebi-registered venture fund. “We believe this blends in well and supports the ecosystem. An increasing number of HNIs will invest in companies, either participating through funds or co-investing with them,” he added. While Venturefund.com has taken on a holistic approach towards building the entrepreneurial ecosystem, by educating and mentoring budding entrepreneurs, another platform, Venturesutra.com, has a much sharper focus — of just helping entrepreneurs raise funds. “Our focus is really on qualifying the deal flow which reaches an investor. What we’ve done is tie up with over 60 investment houses across the country. With one click, an entrepreneur can send his business plan to the country’s leading investors,” says its founder, Abhijit Maheshwari. Venturesutra.com charges startups a fee of Rs 4,500 for its service, and has seen around 100 business plans uploaded so far. Another platform recently launched in the country is TrepUp, positioned as a networking platform for companies and overseas investors keen on investing in Indian firms but don’t know how to. TrepUp.com’s founder John Verbic, formerly with private equity fund, The Chatterjee Group, says he noticed a big opportunity in creating a platform that would help foreign investors invest in Indian companies. “Investors will pay an exponential multiple for opportunities in India, but the problem is, nobody in the West knows anybody here and vice-versa,” says Verbic, whose company acts a bridge between entrepreneurs and investors.Verbic does not charge a fee, but may do so once he reaches user critical mass. With various webbased platforms trying to find their niche and space in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) too plans to join the action. It is planning to soon launch a web-based platform called ‘India Venture Board’, which will aim to be a bulletin board for startups and serve as a platform to bring them and investors together. towards rejuvenating what was once regarded as a mainstay of the internet in the late 90s. What’s your reaction to the news that Microsoft is rebranding Hotmail? Is this, in fact, the final phasing out of Hotmail? I am absolutely delighted with Microsoft’s decision to rebrand Hotmail. Hotmail is not being killed off, but is being enhanced with a host of new features that will allow it to reach out to bigger and wider audience. What does Hotmail represent in today’s tech culture? Is it still regarded as an icon? Absolutely. Even today, taking into account all metrics, Hotmail has almost 400 million unique users. It has more users than Gmail and Yahoo! which have been hugely popular as well. Hotmail Outlook.com will be the total communications package — live video, live chat, and integrated with Skype, LinkedIn. Its interface will allow the user to do so much more SABEER BHATIA, Co-founder, Hotmail Sun Pharma Looks to Acquire Germany’s Stada Arzneimittel Drugmaker seeks to raise $1b for a deal; co looks to step up European play ALBERTINA TORSOLI, AARON KIRCHFELD & GEORGE SMITH ALEXANDER BERLIN | MUMBAI S un Pharmaceutical Industries, India's largest drugmaker by market value, is looking for acquisitions in Europe including a possible takeover of German generic drugmaker Stada Arzneimittel, people familiar with the matter said. Sun has sought to raise about $1 billion for a European deal, said one person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified as the process is private. Company executives recently toured Europe to meet with potential targets, another person said. Stada, based in Bad Vilbel, Germany, has a market value of about ¤1.4 billion ($1.7 billion). Stada shares dropped as much as 5.7% on Thursday to ¤24.11, the biggest intraday decline since April 13, after Deutsche Bank cut its stock- price prediction to ¤32.5 from ¤34. Sun fell 0.6% to `. 656 in Mumbai trading on Thursday, valuing the company at `. 675 billion ($12 billion). The stock has climbed 32% this year, compared with the 12% return on the 17-company BSE India Healthcare Index. A spokesman for Sun said the company wasn't in talks to buy Stada. A spokesman for Stada declined to comment on a potential deal. Sun, controlled by billionaire Dilip Shanghvi, has about $927 million of cash reserves and may seek acquisitions to broaden its geographic breadth or enhance its presence in the US, Nomura Holdings said in a May 31 report. — Bloomberg was a pioneer in the email space, and has held up very well even as the technology landscape continues to change at a stratospheric pace. Why was the rebranding of Hotmail required then, given that it still commands so many users? Google came and changed a lot of the rules. Gmail offered faster email services, unlimited space, cloud services. Hotmail continues to do well, but Microsoft has made the right decision to upgrade and rebrand it, in order to reach newer and younger consumers, especially at a time when social networking has had such a colossal impact on popular culture. Outlook.com will be the total communications package — live video, live chat, and integrated with Skype, LinkedIn. Its interface will allow the user to do so much more. They can work on Office applications such Word, PowerPoint and Excel, and will have greater integration with mobile devices. biswarup.gooptu@timesgroup.com Kaizad Heerjee is Aircel’s New COO GULVEEN AULAKH NEW DELHI India’s fifth-largest mobile phone company Aircel is bringing in a new chief operating officer (COO) from Malaysia, as part of a larger restructuring exercise, executives aware of the development told ET. The telco, majority owned by Malaysia’s Maxis, will appoint Dr Kaizad Heerjee as its COO next week. Heerjee, the former chief executive officer of Malaysian telecom company U Mobile, will report to Maxis Communications chief executive officer and Aircel executive director Sandip Das. The new COO will assume the roll of Gurdeep Singh, who moved out of the company in January along with a few other executives when Aircel’s underwent an organisational restructuring. Maxis Communications Berhad’s chief executive officer Jean Pascal had replaced Singh. Sandhar Tech Buys Mag Engg; Deal Size Seen at .̀ 90 crore KETAN THAKKAR MUMBAI Sandhar Technologies, an affiliate of `. 1,200-crore diversified auto component major Sandhar Group, has acquired 100% stake in Bangalore-based Mag Engineering, one of the largest driver-cabin manufacturers in the country. The Sandhar Technologies’ senior management was in Bangalore on Thursday to complete the acquisition process. ET learns the size of the acquisition is in the range of `. 70-90 crore and Sandhar Technologies will fund this deal through debt and internal accruals. People close to the development said Maple Capital Advisors and Right Horizons were advisors to the transaction. Mag specialises in supply of sheet metal components for construction and engineering industry. When contacted, Jayant Davar, vice-chairman and MD of Sandhar Group, confirmed the acquisition, but declined to give specific details of the deal. While explaining the rationale behind the acquisition, Davar said, “Mag is an established player in specialised fabrication and this acquisition will help us consolidate our sheet metal and fabrication businesses and expand further in niche products.” The acquisition will give Sandhar an opportunity to offer new products to its existing and new customers. ketan.thakkar@timesgroup.com SHIS (Status Holders Incentive Scrip) Licence of Engineering sector for for duty credit of Rs 70 Lacs is available for immediate transfe r to any manufacturer-status holder of Engineering sector. Please Contact Phone No. 09780046172. Genpact Takes ‘Special Payout’ Route to Rope in New PE Investor Departing PE investors benefit as Bain Capital buys 30% in Genpact for $1 b HARSIMRAN JULKA NEW DELHI The coffers of India’s biggest business process outsourcing company will be raided to pay a special dividend to benefit departing private equity investors in a deal where Bain Capital is buying a 30% stake for about $1 billion, or .̀ 5,500 crore. While the special dividend will benefit all shareholders, the payout by Genpact is being seen as payback for private equity firms General Atlantic Partners and Oak Hill Capital Partners, which first acquired a 60% stake in the company from General Electric eight years ago. While on the one hand Genpact will dip into reserves, on the other it is borrowing about $925 million to pay the dividend, retire some $350 million in loans and use the rest for acquisitions. NV ‘Tiger’ Tyagarajan, the chief executive, defended the decision to pay a special dividend in a statement saying it will enhance shareholder value but did not say how. “Taking into account the financial flexibility needed to continue to pursue acquisitions and organic growth initiatives, we concluded that a special dividend, funded in part by additional, modest leverage, would enhance shareholder value,” he said. The market seemed to welcome the deal, sending the stock up nearly 6% on the New York Stock Exchange to its highest ever. The deal with Bain, founded by US Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, was struck at $14.76 per share, about a 15% discount to the closing stock price on Wednesday. Bain will buy a total of 30% from General Atlantic and Oak Hill, which will be left with some 5% each. Bain, which manages $65 billion in assets, has committed not to sell its shares for at least two-and-a-half years. Mayank Rastogi, a partner specialising in PE and transaction advisory services at E&Y, described the deal as a landmark that “renews faith in the India story”. “There are certain deals that are transformational for the industry and this is one of them. In the year to date we have clocked perhaps a total of $3.5 billion in deals by value and suddenly a deal of this size comes along.” harsimran.julka@timesgroup.com TO BREAK THE RULES , YOU MUST FIRST MASTER THEM. THE WATCH THAT BROKE ALL THE RULES , REBORN FOR 2012. IN 1972 , THE ORIGINAL ROYA L OAK SHOCKED THE WATCHMAKING WORLD AS THE F RST HAUTE HOROLOGY SPORTS WATCH TO We’re not Reckless with Our Investments TREAT STEEL AS A APRECIOUS METAL. TODAY THE NEW ROYAL OAK COLLECTION STAYS TRUE TO THE SAME PRINCIPLES SET OUT IN LE BRASSUS ALL From Page 1 HDFC Mutual’s assets have grown from .̀ 86,648 crore in June 2010 to .̀ 92,624 crore last month. Top schemes such as HDFC Equity Fund, HDFC Top 200 Fund, HDFC Prudence Fund and HDFC Opportunities Fund attracted over 65% of equity fund inflows in 2011, according to estimates by top distributors. Further, HDFC Top 200 Fund, the largest mutual fund scheme in India with assets over .̀ 11,100 crore, has generated three-year returns of 8% as against category average returns of 6.2%. “We were lucky in the sense that right in the early stages of our career, we made mistakes; and those mistakes were made with smaller sums of money. Since then, I would like to believe, we’ve not made other large mistakes,” says Jain, a recluse in the roller-coaster universe of fund houses. Centurion Quantum, a few years later, was rechristened HDFC Capital Builder after Twentieth Century Asset Management was acquired by Zurich MF and subsequently merged with HDFC Mutual Fund. Today, the scheme has assets worth .̀ 462 crore and an NAV of .̀ 101. The NAV is the performance barometer that rules the life of a fund manager. Perhaps, to take the ups and downs in his stride, Jain is into meditation. Friends and sell-side analysts say the man is a stickler for research and backs his stocks to the hilt if he is convinced about a company’s prospects. Such conviction was demonstrated in 2011 when shares of power equipment maker Crompton Greaves were under pressure due to poor results and allegations of poor corporate governance. Many investors and analysts cried foul over the company’s decision to pay .̀ 270 crore to buy an aircraft and Crompton’s non-executive vice-chairman SM Trehan’s move to sell his entire holding between June 29 and July 1 after he stepped down as the managing director on June 1. Even as many investors were considering dumping their Crompton holdings, Jain was quietly accumulating the company’s shares after they plunged almost 44% in a month from July 19. “We’re not reckless with our investments... It’s fair to say, we put reasonable amounts of capital behind our high convictions and ideas; but we’re not reck- less,” says the soft-spoken fund manager. Jain is the among the very few fund managers who have not been lured by market momentums that lead to bubbles. The most memorable one being the tech bubble in the late-1990s, when Jain stayed away from the raging rally in technology stocks that turbocharged assets and returns of many mutual fund schemes. As a result, his schemes underperformed significantly, drawing sharp criticism from investors and distributors. But, when the bubble burst in early 2000, most managers had to take severe hits on their portfolios, while HDFC MF schemes were largely unaffected. This was probably the turning point in Jain’s career. “Our funds underperformed 20-30% that year…we kept on going back to our numbers to reassure ourselves. Ultimately, when the fall came, what we lost in one year, we gained in two months. That is when we stood apart from the crowd,” says Jain, sitting in his office at Ramon House. The lessons of the tech bubble strengthened his resolve to stay away from similar bubbles in the real estate and infrastructure sectors in 2007-08 at the expense of HDFC Mutual Fund schemes lagging its peers. “Spotting a bubble is not difficult. What is difficult is to bear the underperformance and the pain in the short to medium term. We did not invest in real estate in 2007 and that year turned out to be really bad for us; we underperformed by almost 7%,” says Jain, a fitness freak who loves his game of badminton. But the stock market often has a way of punishing cautious managers. The investment team Jain leads made a string of wrong calls in debts papers in 2008-09, resulting in losses. Also, his conservativeness cost Jain a few multi-baggers. Brokers said Jain could not get his timing right in companies such as Asian Paints, Crisil, Bajaj Auto and Jindal Steel & Power. He even mistimed his exit from consumer stocks last year. “There have been companies which we sold a bit too early thinking there were better opportunities elsewhere. But I don’t think we’ve missed any large sectors. About two years ago, we sold a few consumer stocks…these stocks performed much better than we had expected,” admits Jain, who is bullish on domes- tic equities these days. Twelve years after his first taste with success, Jain continues to avoid the media glare. Friends say it’s this quiet attitude that cost Jain a campus placement at ICICI Bank, when they visited IIM-Bangalore for recruitment. “Unlike other IIT-IIM graduates, Jain could not rattle off management theories to save his life,” says one of Jain’s batchmates at IIT-Kanpur. According to Dhirendra Kumar of Value Research, Jain did not manage funds differently from others. “He just kept it simple and committed lesser mistakes,” says Kumar. Sunil Shah, former HDFC Securities MD and owner of Evergreen Family Office, remembers Jain as a value-picker than a momentum player. “Prashant knows 300-400 balance sheets by heart,” says Shah. “HDFC funds are not momentum-driven funds. They may not generate best category returns at all times; but they will remain in the top quartile at all times.” The institutional sales head of a leading domestic brokerage qualifies Jain as a ‘strongly opinionated’ fund manager, who trusts very few in the market. Jain, according to him, rips apart sell-side analysts who do not have strong views to support their stock recommendations. “Jain talks to analysts with his own set of numbers, estimates and assumptions. If you do not have anything to counter his argument or excite him, he’ll not suffer you long in his office,” said the institutional sales head. Such traits bring to the fore the quiet yet aggressive, steady but ambitious nature of a man who is otherwise a recluse. “I don’t think my urge to beat the markets has gone down one bit. The day that goes down, a fund manager should stop managing direct money at least,” says Jain, looking up from the spreadsheets scattered on his table. Maybe, it’s this fear of failure that keeps him on his toes. Indeed, the very thought of failure scares him. “If you are not scared to fail, you’re more likely to fail. It’s fine if you make mistakes with your own money... you’re not answerable to anyone. But when you’re managing money for people, failure does impact more,” he says slowly, before turning to the endless numbers flashing across the computer screens. 1 HOSE YEARS AGO: BODY OH SI EEL , H EARl OF GOLD ’ OVER 130 YEARS OF HOROLOGICAL CRAFT, MASTERY AND EXQUISITE DETAILING LIE INSIDE THIS CONIC MODERN EXTERIOR ; THE ALWAY S PURPOSEFUL ROYAL OAK ARCHITECTURE NOW EXPRESSED IN 41MM DIAMETER. THE AUDEMARS PIGUET ROYAL OAK: CELEBRATING 40 YEARS. ROYALOAK AA STANLESS STEEL . SEILFVVI N D NG MANLiFACT URFMOVF I 1FNT f RoyaI Qk 40 Years AUDEMARS PIGUET Le Brassus Available at: De hi K.APOOR WATCH G 7 South Extension Part 1 Tel: (11) 4134 5678 243 -A AEmporlo Mall 1st Floor Tel: (1 1) 46 (6 (( ( ( Mumba: TIME AVENUE 189 Turner Rd Tel: (22) 2651 5858 audemarspigu et. corn
Similar documents
The CIO Series - Aircel
support the national rollout. He planned a modular facility with an interim technology center at the same location. The interim facility could be built quickly, and the modular design would help in...
More information