StartupTalky

Tag: News 📰

  • Why did Verizon sell Yahoo and AOL for half of their value

    On 3 May 2021, Verizon had announced that it is selling Yahoo and AOL properties to Apollo Global Management. It is estimated that the company has sold Yahoo and AOL for almost half of what it had paid for acquiring the company. Let’s look at why Verizon sold Yahoo and AOL for half the price.

    About the Deal
    Acquired Amount
    Reason for the Sale
    Recent Sales of Verizon
    Apollo Capital Management
    FAQ

    About the Deal

    Verizon has sold its properties, that is Yahoo and AOL to Apollo Global Management. The deal is said to be worth USD 5 billion which is half of what the company had paid for both the properties which were around USD 9 billion.

    Verizon will maintain around a 10 % stake in the company in Yahoo and the company will continue to be led by the CEO Guru Gowrappan.

    Acquired Amount

    In 2015 for the company AOL, Verizon had actually paid around USD 4.4 billion and two years later, the company had paid around USD 4.5 billion for the acquisition of Yahoo.

    The media divisions included properties such as Yahoo Sports, Tech Crunch and Engadget. All the media companies were consolidated under the inappropriate name Oath, which was later renamed as Verizon Media Group in the year 2018.

    At the time of acquisition, people connected to the internet through AOL and its front page was Yahoo. Yahoo and AOL were at their peak with a market capitalization of more than USD 200 billion for AOL and Yahoo with a market capitalization of more than USD 100 billion.

    Verizon Acquisition
    Verizon Acquisition

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    Reason for the Sale

    The main reason for the sale of Verizon’s Yahoo and AOL was due to
    their failed attempt to turn itself into a major player in the online advertising market and digital content. Since at the time of the acquisition of AOL and Yahoo both the companies were at their peak in the market with a huge market capitalization.

    In the early days of the internet era, both AOL and Verizon were success stories of the internet. Later both the companies failed to catch up with the trends in the market.

    AOL had become a corporate giant after it sold its dial-up internet services for millions but later the company started declining and faded as a dial-up service which was replaced by broadband.

    While Yahoo was a widely known and popular search engine and a web service portal, but later its competitor Google started capturing the market which led its business to suffer. AOL which is Verizon’s ad tech business is said to be suffered and is under closing conditions.

    This deal will be a closing for Verizon’s experiment into the media production and advertising businesses.

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    Recent Sales of Verizon

    In the year 2019, the company had sold Tumble for an amount that was not disclosed. The estimated amount is said to be below USD 3 million but Yahoo in the year 2013 had paid around USD 1.1 billion for acquiring the blogging platform.

    In the year 2020, the company had sold HuffPost to Buzzfeed which was acquired by AOL in the year 2011 for an amount of USD 315 million.

    Apollo Capital Management

    Apollo Capital Management is a private equity firm. The company owns Cox Media, Arts and Crafts retail chain Michaels and Venetian resort in Las Vegas. The company also owns the tech companies which include Shutterfly and Rackspace which makes the company more familiar with the tech industry.

    Reed Rayman who is the partner of Apollo said that the company is excited to unlock the tremendous potential of Yahoo and its unique collection of brands. He added that they have a great amount of respect and admiration for the work and progress the entire organization has made over the last several years.

    He said that they are looking forward to working with the CEO Guru and his talented team and the partners at Verizon in order to increase the growth of Yahoo in the coming future.

    FAQ

    How much did Verizon pay for Yahoo?

    Verizon acquired Yahoo for $4.5 billion.

    How much did Verizon pay for AOL?

    AOL was acquired by Verizon Communications for $4.4 billion

    Who is the parent company of Verizon?

    Verizon Communications is the parent company of Verizon.

    Conclusion

    The deal between Apollo Capital Management and Verizon is expected to close by the second half of 2021. Verizon has plans to focus on its 5G network once it gets rid of the media arm.

  • What will be the Net Worth of Bill Gates after his divorce

    On 3 May 2021, Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates had announced that they were ending their 27 years of marriage. Bill Gates is the co-founder and the former CEO of Microsoft whereas his wife Melinda French Gates is one of the most powerful women in the world. Let’s look at what would be the net worth of Bill Gates after the divorce as he is one of the richest men in the world.

    About the Divorce
    Net Worth of Bill Gates
    Cascade Investment
    Other holdings of Bill Gates
    Dividing the Wealth
    FAQ

    About the Divorce

    The couple had announced on 3 May 2021 that they have planned to end their 27 years of marriage life. Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates conveyed through Twitter that they had come to the decision to end their marriage after a great deal of thoughts and a lot of work on their relationship.

    Bill Gates Tweet
    Bill Gates Tweet

    They added that they have raised 3 incredible children and also worked together to build a foundation that works across the globe which will enable all people to lead productive and healthy lives.

    Net Worth of Bill Gates

    Bill Gates is one of the richest men around the globe making him one of the world’s richest billionaires. A global high net worth data and intelligence company called Wealth-X has estimated the net worth of Bill Gates to be around USD 134.1 billion.

    The success of Bill Gates had begun with Microsoft. But as of now, He has just 19.6 % of his wealth through the shares of Microsoft. According to Wealth-X, the amount added to Bill Gates’ net worth through Microsoft is estimated to be around USD 26.1 billion.

    The majority of the money of Bill Gates is now tied up with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation but the exact value is not yet revealed. Bill Gates has also joined with Warren Buffet where they together founded the Giving pledge which asks the billionaires to give away more than half of their wealth to philanthropy.

    All these have been a hurdle in the division of wealth between Bill Gates and Melinda Gates making it much more complicated. They have separation agreements but it is seen that the terms have not yet been made public according to the court documents.

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    Cascade Investment

    The Cascade Investment is considered to be one of the biggest assets of Bill Gates. He funded the company with the amount he received after the sales of Microsoft’s stock. According to Wealth-X, his investment in Cascade has a valuation of around USD 30 billion. This accounts for around 22 % of his net worth.

    Through Cascade Investments Bill Gates has shareholdings worth of billions of dollars in different companies such as Deere and Company of around USD 11 billion, Canadian National Railways of around USD 11 billion and Diageo of around USD 1.6 billion.

    Through Cascade investment Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation trust reportedly own stocks.

    Other holdings of Bill Gates

    The real estate portfolio of Bill Gates is considered to be worth multi billion dollars. According to Wealth-X, his portfolio is worth more than USD 160 million. Some of his valuable real estate investments include a lakeside home in Washington of around 66,000 square feet, 30-acre estate in Florida, two additional properties in California and so on. He also has a private island called Grand Bogue Caye in Belize.

    Bill Gates House
    Bill Gates House

    The car collection of Bill Gates is estimated by Wealth-X to be around USD 650,000 and an extensive art collection estimated around USD 130 million which includes some works of Leonardo da Vinci. His car collection includes brands such as Porsche, Jaguar and Ferrari.

    Other than these over the years, Bill Gates has provided billions of dollars to their foundation that is Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

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    Dividing the Wealth

    Monica Mazzei who is a divorce attorney reacting towards Bill and Melinda’s foundation and family offices has said that the decision will depend on what extent both of them are planning to work together.

    She said that even in the friendliest divorces she has seen the preference has always been to split the foundation into two so that there are fewer chances to mingle with each other and more freedom for each other. She said that the same was applicable to the family offices as well.

    There are certain predictions that the assets may be divided into halves. The law of Washington states that any asset which is acquired during a marriage is equally owned by both the partners. But it does not mean exactly half, the court can allocate it according to what is just and right. According to Forbes, if the Bill gates and Melinda split their fortune equally, Melinda would be worth approximately $65.25 billion.

    FAQ

    What is Bill Gates wife worth?

    According to Forbes, if the Bill gates and Melinda split their fortune equally, Melinda would be worth $65.25 billion.

    What is the Net worth of Bill Gates?

    The net worth of Bill Gates is 13,050 crores USD.

    What is Bill Gates IQ?

    The IQ of the Bill Gates is 160.

    Conclusion

    Since Bill Gates and Melinda Gates have clarified that they would be working together in the foundation and asked to provide some space and freedom, we will have to look forward to how the wealth will be divided among them.

  • Why did Twitter Acquire the news reader service Scroll

    Twitter is an American based microblogging platform and a social media networking service that has around 192 million daily active users as of 2021. According to a data received from 2019, an average Twitter user spent around 3.39 minutes on the platform. Recently Twitter has acquired the reading service called Scroll. Let’s look at why the company had acquired Scroll.

    Twitter Scroll Acquisition
    Twitter’s plan
    Twitter’s Subscription service
    Future of Scroll
    FAQ

    Twitter Scroll Acquisition

    On 5 May 2021,Twitter said that it had acquired Scroll which is a service that is based on the subscription that provides news articles with removed advertisements.

    They added saying that the company had built a new way that led the subscribers to read the articles without the ads, pop-ups or any other disturbances that a user face on the digital platforms. The company will clean up the reading experience of their users by providing their subscribers with what they require.

    Scroll Website
    Scroll Website

    Twitter also told that the publishers who work with Scroll have revealed that they get a chance to make more revenue than they will be able to make from any page through the running of traditional advertisements.

    Twitter’s plan

    Twitter said that they consider it to be an exciting opportunity for them to introduce this proven business model to the publishers on Twitter’s platform. This is expected to make reading the news much more better for everyone involved with it.

    The company said while looking into the future, Scroll will be added to their subscription model in a much more meaningful manner as the company has plans to build and introduce a subscription service on their digital platform in the future.

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    Twitter’s Subscription service

    In the year 2020, the microblogging platform had confirmed that it was working towards exploring an idea to create a paid service on the basis of a subscription model which would include a lot of new features and services. The company expects to develop it in a way where the users will be willing for subscribing to it as per reports.

    The company is also working towards developing a feature for its Publishers and content creators called Super Follows. Earlier this year, Twitter had mentioned about this feature during its Analyst Day Event.

    The feature is planned to work as an account subscription where the subscribers will get access to various services offered by the content creators and publishers on the social media major’s platform.

    These include paid newsletters, audio conversations, special access to direct messages, exclusive tweets, etc. At the beginning of 2021, Twitter had acquired Revue which is a platform that offers users such as writers and content publishers to publish the editorial newsletters.

    Twitter had conveyed in a blog post which said that imagine as a Twitter subscriber getting access to the premium features where one would get an easy access to read articles from your favourite news outlet or a newsletter from a writer through Revue.

    It added on that the portion of the subscription amount would go to the publishers and the content creators.

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    Future of Scroll

    Twitter said that Scroll will temporarily stop new sign-ups because of the latest acquisition. Twitter added that they will work towards including the company’s services into their subscription plans and will look forward to growing the number of publishers of Scroll’s platform.

    The social media major said that they will continue to support the community that already exists on Scroll such as the publishers, content creators and the customers and it added that the new Publishers who are interested to join the Scroll’s community can sign up on their website for the latest updates.

    FAQ

    What is Twitter’s net worth?

    Twitters net worth is estimated around $4.4B.

    Which country uses twitter the most?

    United States, Japan and India are the top three countries that uses twitter the most.

    Who is the CEO of Twitter?

    Jack Dorsey is the CEO of Twitter.

    Conclusion

    Twitter has around 11.7 million downloads on the app store and around 67 % of the B2B businesses using it as a digital marketing tool. Around 40% of the Twitter users have claimed that they have purchased something after seeing a tweet on the platform. We will have to see how the new subscription model of Twitter would bring a change in the market ecosystem.

  • What is App Tracking Transparency and Why Facebook is objecting to it

    Apple has recently released an update to its iPhone’s operating system which consists of app tracking transparency. It is said to have affected Facebook’s business model. Let’s look at what exactly is app transparency and the new update which can be accessed by the Apple users across the globe.

    About iOS 14.5
    App Tracking Transparency
    How does App Transparency Work
    Restrictions by Apple
    Steps taken by Apple
    Why is Facebook objecting it
    FAQ

    About iOS 14.5

    Apple has rolled out a new update to its iPhone users operating system – iOS 14.5. The update features a new batch of emojis according to the current requirement. Other than the emojis the main highlight of the update is the introduction of app transparency in the apps.

    This new update is considered very significant for some users whereas less fun for others. This new feature is considered to be a guide of privacy which is user-oriented in the new era.

    Not everyone is happy with the new update which is rolled out by Apple especially Facebook. The social media giant’s business model completely depends on tracking the user’s data in order to sell personalized and targeted ads.

    The new update provides you with an option to choose whether the mobile applications can track your online habits or not.

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    App Tracking Transparency

    Apple’s iPhone is well known for its privacy features in the market. The new update is another step taken by Apple to be recognized globally as the platform for privacy. The new feature which is rolled out by Apple will display a notification that will pop up on the screen.

    Apple App Tracking Transparency
    Apple App Tracking Transparency

    The notification will explain what data the mobile application wants to collect from your device and what it intends to do with the collected information. In order to gain the access to the new feature, the users will have to just keep their phone updated and install the new iOS update. On most of the devices, the new feature will get updated automatically.

    Once the new feature is updated, the already installed mobile application will display an option on whether you would want to opt in or opt out of the new feature.

    How does App Transparency Work

    Apple has provided an explanation which says the new update on tracking the transparency of the apps is through an API (Application Programming Interface). The developers use this as a set of programming commands in order to interact with the operating system.

    The API will provide the software developers a few functions that is preprocessed. This will allow the developers to request authorization for tracking or check the status of authorization using tracking managers for every single mobile application.

    This feature also means that the operating system will have a base location that will store and check on what permissions have been granted to all the applications on the device. The downside of this feature is that there is no physical mechanism that will stop the tracking of a user by the apps.

    The transparency of the tracking of apps is a framework of just a pop-up box.

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    Restrictions by Apple

    If you choose the option app not to track and if the specified mobile app is using legitimate advertising identifiers on the device then when you choose the option no, the application will set the identifiers of advertising into zero. The apps that honor Apple’s tracking policy will reduce the capabilities of tracking.

    But if a mobile app does not honor the tracking policy of apple and is determined to track the user’s activities then they could use different techniques which will help them track the user’s data. This will make it difficult for Apple to detect or prevent the mobile app from tracking the data of the users.

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    Steps taken by Apple

    Apple is likely to find out and make it hard for the mobile app developers who would not play by the rules set by Apple. Apple had updated its Guidelines for its App Store recently which is completely concentrated on the developers.

    According to the new Guidelines the app developers should receive clear permissions from the users through Apple’s API for tracking the transparency of apps to track the activity of the users.

    Why is Facebook objecting it

    Facebook has an objection regarding the new operating system update that is rolled out by Apple. Facebook’s major revenue is through the data it collects from its users. The new feature is a threat to the social media giant’s revenue generation as the company’s main source of revenue is through the sales of targeted ads. The revenue Facebook generated through advertisements during the year 2020 was more than USD 80 billion.

    FAQ

    What is app tracking transparency?

    App tracking ensures that any app must ask you for permission before tracking your activity outside of its own app.

    What is going on with Facebook and Apple?

    Facebook says Apple is attempting to push free apps, which often sweep data up and feed it to advertisers, to move to subscription models.

    How will iOS 14 affect Facebook?

    Apple’s iOS 14 will affect the way you use Facebook Ads. Going forward, the SKAdNetwork API will be used by Facebook for app advertising on all iOS 14 devices, and this will either restrict, aggregate, or delay all app event data.

    Conclusion

    Apple’s step is well positioned to delivering the privacy required for its users. However, the feature is optional and the users will have the choice to opt in or out of it. This can not be considered as an end to the advertising of the digital world as we receive free access to all the services because of their advertisements.

  • How Facebook’s Vaccine finder tool will help India Vaccinate

    Facebook Inc on 30 April 2021 had announced that it is planning to roll out a new feature in its digital platform in India. The vaccination drive for the people above the age of 18 has been said to be started from the month of May.

    The second wave of Covid-19 has been increasing significantly in the country with vaccination being given the most important priority at this moment. The new feature is a finder tool that will help India in the process of Covid-19 vaccination. Let’s look at how the new finder tool of Facebook will help India to vaccinate the people.

    About Facebook
    Facebook’s Vaccine Finder Tool
    Additional features of the Tool
    Facebook’s help and support
    FAQ

    About Facebook

    Facebook is an American based social media platform and social networking service. The company was launched in the year 2004. The digital platform is available in around 111 languages and available worldwide except in the countries where it is blocked.

    As of December 2020, the company has around 2.8 billion monthly active users and during the 2010s Facebook was the most downloaded mobile app globally.

    As of April 2021, there were around 406,100,000 users in India. It accounted for 28.9 % of the entire population of the country. The largest user group in the country was people aged in between 25 to 34 years. The majority of the users were men with around 74.5% of the users.

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    Facebook’s Vaccine Finder Tool

    On 30 April 2021, Facebook Inc had announced that the company has partnered with the Government of India to introduce a new feature which will be a vaccine finder tool. The finder tool will be available on the mobile application of Facebook in India from this week.

    The vaccine finder tool will be available in 17 different languages in India. The finder tool will help the people locate the nearest vaccine center and the operation time period of the vaccine centers according to the health ministry.

    Additional features of the Tool

    Facebook said in a statement that the new tool will help people in identifying the walk-in options as well for the people above the age of 45. It will also provide a link to register on the CoWin website in order to register and schedule the appointment for the vaccination.

    The tool can be accessed in the Covid-19 information center. The Social media company also communicated that it is supporting the NGOs and UN agencies in India with ad credits. They are also providing insights and trying to help them reach the majority of the country through their digital platform with Covid vaccines and health information to prevent covid-19 infections.

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    Facebook’s help and support

    Facebook has also committed with UNICEF India to provide health resources about when to seek emergency care and how to manage covid-19 with mild symptoms at home. The above information is available on the Covid -19 information center and the feed of Facebook’s platform.

    The company said that on Instagram they are promoting this feature in the explore feature in the form of guides.

    Instagram Covid Guide
    Instagram Covid Guide

    In the last week of April 2021, the Chief of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg had announced a USD 10 million grant for covid-19 emergency response efforts in India. To deploy these funds the social media giant is partnering with the organizations such as US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) and United Way, Swasth, Hemkunt Foundation.

    The funds will mainly be used to access the critical medical supplies which include ventilators, increasing hospital bed capacity, BiPAP machines and 5000+ oxygen concentrators.

    FAQ

    What is Facebook’s net worth?

    $279.95 billion is the net worth of Facebook as of 2021.

    Who owns Facebook now?

    Mark Zuckerberg is the founder and owner of Facebook.

    What percent of Facebook does Zuckerberg own?

    Mark Zuckerberg owns 29.3 percent of Facebook.

    Conclusion

    The covid-19 second wave has increased the number of cases in the country and this step from Facebook will be a great help for the Indian government and the citizens in the country. The vaccination drive is expected to be done in a smoother way.

  • Why FDA might ban Menthol cigarettes in USA

    The Food and Drug Administration of the United States has announced a plan to ban menthol cigarettes and cigars with flavors by next year. Let’s look at why the FDA is planning to ban menthol cigarettes in the country.

    About The ban
    Reason for the Ban
    What Research Suggests
    Downsides of the Ban
    FAQ

    About The ban

    On 29 April 2021, the United States Food and Drug Administration had announced its plans to ban the menthol cigarettes and the cigars with flavour additives within the next year.

    Xavier Becerra who is the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had said in a statement that the science-based decision is the reflection of the administration of Biden in order to commit towards the improvement of the health of all Americans.

    He also added saying that this step will help to tackle the differences in health in the most marginalized communities.

    Reason for the Ban

    In the United States, Menthol is the only flavour that is allowed to be used in cigarettes which are marketed in the country according to the 2009 Tobacco Control Act (TCA). The main reason for the ban of Menthol Cigarettes is a step taken by the agency to try to take action to reduce the addiction to tobacco and to reduce the deaths related to smoking.

    In order to achieve the above goal, the Food and Drug Administration believes that the ban on menthol cigarettes would help. There are strong pieces of evidence that the ban on menthol cigarettes will help people quit smoking.

    The FDA said in a statement that certain studies show that menthol increases the need for tobacco and it also leads to regular smoking, which is particularly seen in the youth and the young adults. The agency had further added saying that the menthol cigarettes will cover the unpleasant flavours and the harshness of tobacco products which leads to an increase in their consumption.

    FDA to Ban Menthol cigarettes
    FDA to Ban Menthol cigarettes

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    What Research Suggests

    In certain studies, it is found that there are more blacks for the use of menthol cigarettes. According to The New York Times, since the year 1950, the menthol cigarettes have been marketed to the smokers of the black community in the United States.

    According to a report that is noted by the FDA, In the United States, there are around 18.6 million users of menthol cigarettes and out of which 85 % of the consumption is done by black smokers and the rest are white smokers.

    As per a study which was published in the BMJ Journals, around 21. 5 % of the people in the Canadian provinces had quit smoking due to the ban of menthol cigarettes in seven provinces and around 59.1 % of the smokers switched to non-menthol cigarettes.

    The study had noted that the smokers of menthol cigarettes were more likely to quit smoking when compared to the non-menthol smokers to make an attempt to quit.

    Even though there are likely chances for a menthol cigarette smoker to switch to non-menthol cigarettes, the ban of menthol cigarettes is associated with quit attempts at a higher rate and also quit success with menthol smokers compared to non-menthol smokers.

    The study noted that the ban on menthol cigarettes has helped the menthol smokers to prevent the relapse towards smoking by the ones who had quit before the ban.

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    Downsides of the Ban

    There are certain downsides as well due to the ban on menthol cigarettes. As per certain critics, the banning of menthol cigarettes may not achieve the expected results among smokers and may lead to a black market for the menthol cigarettes.

    Legal and Advocacy Organization (ACLU) had written a letter to Becerra after the announcement of the FDA’s decision. In the letter, ACLU has conveyed that the ban on menthol cigarettes would lead to serious implications on racial justice.

    FAQ

    Is menthol FDA approved?

    FDA and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is planning To Ban Menthol Cigarettes in the United States.

    Are newports menthol?

    Newports is an American brand of menthol cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.

    What does FDA stand for?

    FDA stands for Food and Drug Administration.

    Conclusion

    The decision of the FDA towards the ban of menthol cigarettes is a significant step taken by the commission on the health of the citizens in the country. The letter had said that the ban would trigger criminal penalties which would impact the people on the basis of colour disproportionately.

  • How Tata will soon compete Jiomart

    TATA Group has been looking to acquire the grocery delivery startup Bigbasket. The company has received approval from The Competition Commission of India (CCI) to acquire the unicorn grocery delivery startup of India. Let’s look at how TATA will soon compete with Jiomart and the further details of the acquisition of Bigbasket.

    Tata to Acquire Bigbasket
    Why Tata is Planning to acquire Bigbasket
    Value and details of the Deal
    About BigBasket
    FAQ

    Tata to Acquire Bigbasket

    The latest deal of TATA digital is to acquire a stake in the B2B arm of Bigbasket which is Supermarket Grocery Supplies Private Ltd (SGS) which will let TATA digital to indirectly acquire Bigbasket’s Online Retail Business Innovative Retail Concepts (IRC). This will take place through separate transactions.

    The deal will let TATA digital to control both Bigbasket’s retail and wholesale business units. The CCI(Competition Commission of India) has said that the proposed deal will not lead to any problems or changes in the competitive landscape in India. CCI has said that irrespective of the manner in which the relevant markets are defined the deal will not cause any effect in the competition in India.

    Why Tata is Planning to acquire Bigbasket

    TATA Group has got the approval from the Competition Commission of India to acquire the grocery delivery unicorn startup with a stake of 64.3 %. The acquisition is expected to be done through TATA digital which is the digital arm of the TATA group.

    TATA digital has plans to launch a super app by this year. The planned super-app is a step towards competing with the digital business conglomerates such as Amazon, Reliance Industries and Flipkart which is owned by Walmart.

    The app is expected to help the consumers to get access to services such as ordering food and grocery, fashion and lifestyle, insurance and financial services, consumer electronics and consumer durable products, education, healthcare and bill payments.

    The company also has talks to acquire 1mg which will be a part of the strategy to expand its e-pharmacy offerings to its customers.

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    Value and details of the Deal

    The exact value of the transaction has not yet been disclosed. The estimation according to the market is around USD 1.8 to USD 2 billion. According to the deal, most of the existing investors of Bigbasket will be exiting the company which includes the Chinese based e-commerce platform Alibaba.

    According to the earlier reports, the TATA group is expected to buy the 30 % stake of Alibaba in the online grocery company Bigbasket. The Bigbasket’s top management which includes the co-founder and CEO of the company Hari Menon and others are expected to continue on the board.

    According to the terms of the deal, TATA group has said that it will allow the company to list on the public markets as early as 2022.

    Tata Bigbasket Acquisition
    Tata Bigbasket Acquisition

    About BigBasket

    BigBasket is a trade name of Supermarket Grocery Supplies Private Ltd. The company was founded in the year 2011 and has its headquarters located in Bangalore, India. It is an online grocery delivery service that primarily focuses on delivering grocery foods that are found in convenience stores, home essentials and food supplies to its customers.

    The company entered the unicorn club of India in the year 2019 after raising a capital of around USD 150 million in the Series F funding. The funding was raised from the companies such as Alibaba, CDC Group which is backed by the UK Government and Mirae Asset Global Investments of South Korea.

    FAQ

    Is Walmart investing in Tata?

    Walmart is planning to invest upto $25 billion in Tata Group’s super app.

    Which Tata company is buying big basket?

    Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd has agreed to acquire control of India’s largest online grocer Bigbasket for more than $1billion.

    Is Tata digital listed?

    Tata Digital Limited is a Public incorporated on 11 March 2019. It is classified as Non-govt company.

    Conclusion

    The acquisition of Bigbasket is a huge step taken by the TATA group to increase its competency level in the digital retail business in India. The already existing companies which include Jiomart, Amazon and Flipkart are expected to face a huge competition from this acquisition.

  • Reasons How Castrol India witnessed a huge profit in Q1 2021

    In the first quarterly results of the leading lubricant player Castrol India, there was a huge rise in their profit and almost doubling of their net income compared to the previous year. It was announced during the company board meeting which was held on 26 April 2021. Let’s look at the reasons why Castrol India saw a huge profit in the Q1 of 2021.

    About Castrol India
    Results of Castrol India
    Reasons for the Profit
    FAQ

    About Castrol India

    Castrol India is an automotive and industrial lubricant manufacturing company. The company owns around 20% of the market share in the overall Indian lubricant market. The company was founded in the year 1910 and has its headquarters located in Mumbai, India.

    The company comes under the oil and gas industry. Some of the products of the company include Oil, petroleum, petrochemical and lubricants. In India, Castrol India is the 2nd largest manufacturer of automotive and industrial lubricants.

    In various parts of the country, there has been a slowdown in the industrial activities due to the second wave of the pandemic. The company has said that there have been disruptions in the supply of base oil, availability of raw materials and certain other challenges such as logistics and rupee depreciation.

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    Results of Castrol India

    On 26 April 2021 during the board meeting of Castrol India, the company had announced that its net income had more than doubled itself compared to the previous year. The first quarter net income for the month of January to March was about INR 243.6 crores against the previous quarterly results which were about INR 125.2 crores.

    The revenue of the company had grown to INR 1,138.7 crores in the first quarter from the previous year of INR 688 crores. The revenue of the company for the previous year which ended in December 2020 was about INR 2,996.9 crores and the net income of the company was around INR 582.9 crores.

    For the first quarter of 2021, the company’s revenue from operations has seen a growth of around 66% which amounted to INR 1,138.7 crores and Castrol India had seen their profit grow to more than double to INR 243.6 crores compared to the previous quarters INR 125.2 crores.

    The quarterly results were said in a statement by the Managing Director of Castrol India, Sandeep Sangwan.

    Total Income of Castrol India Ltd.
    Total Income of Castrol India Ltd.

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    Reasons for the Profit

    One of the main reasons for the increase in profits and the net income of the company is due to its exponential growth of the revenue of Castrol India. The Managing Director Sandeep Sangwan said that, the good numbers that were seen in the quarterly results were mainly due to the focused investment activities, actions and the interventions made by the company during the second half of 2020.

    The above set of actions included the steps such as the building of the brand, corrective pricing, Increasing the marketing and spending on advertisements for building brands and the introduction of new products.

    The achievement of the huge profit has also been supported by the improvement according to the trends and demand especially in the sales of SUV and tractor during the first quarter of 2021.

    He said that the increase in cash from operations that is INR 269 crore in the first quarter of 2021 was mainly due to the implementation of a cost efficiency programme and judicious working capital management. The cash from operations of Castrol India is equivalent to 1.1 times of the net income.

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    FAQ

    Is Castrol an American company?

    Castrol is a U.K.-based producer of industrial and automotive lubricants for a global market.

    Who is Castrol oil owned by?

    Castrol is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BP PLC.

    What does BP stand for now?

    BP stands for British Petroleum Company Limited.

    Conclusion

    The covid-19 pandemic has made it hard for most of the industries and Castrol India has also conveyed that the second wave will have an adverse impact on their demand and supply. This may be seen in the further quarterly results announced by the company.

  • Reasons Why Nomura saw a loss of $2.3 Billion

    Nomura Holdings which is a Japanese brokerage house has recorded a steep loss for the first quarter of 2021. Nomura had also booked a loss in the previous financial year amidst the Covid pandemic. Let’s look at the reason given by Nomura holdings regarding the loss and the further steps taken by the company.

    About Nomura Holdings
    Reason and Amount of loss
    Past of Archegos Capital Management
    Strategy of Nomura Holdings
    Further Steps
    Risk Management
    FAQ

    About Nomura Holdings

    Nomura Holdings is a Japanese-based financial holding company that is one of the most important members of Nomura Group. The company was established in the year 1925 and has its headquarters located in Tokyo, Japan.

    The company is part of the financial services, consulting and financial management industry. They provide their services to individuals, institutions and government customers on a global basis.

    Some of the services provided by Nomura Holdings are Financial Services, Security Services, Retail Banking, Investment Management, Asset Banking and Asset Management.

    Reason and Amount of loss

    On 27 April 2021, Nomura Holdings has said that its losses from the collapse of a U.S investor Archegos Capital Management would amount up to USD 2.87 billion. This has put the Japanese-based Nomura Holdings under a steep loss.

    In the first quarterly report, the company has recorded a loss of 245.7 billion yen which is related to the transaction with Archegos Capital Management. In relation to the same transaction, the company said that it will further book a loss of up to 62 billion yen in the current fiscal year.

    In the first quarter, the overall loss booked by Nomura Holdings was around 155 billion yen (Around USD 1.4 billion). This is considered to be the first quarterly loss of Nomura Holdings in a year.

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    Past of Archegos Capital Management

    Nomura Holdings was one of the string of banks that were exposed to Archegos which is a New York-based investment company and family office which is run by Bill Hwang.

    On 29 March 2021, Nomura holdings had already warned about the loss of around USD 2 billion which would arise from the transaction of the U.S client. Earlier Credit Suisse has also faced losses worth billions of dollars in regards to the transactions with Archegos.

    Even the rival bank Swiss Bank UBS said on 27 April 2021 that it had lost an amount of up to USD 774 million from the trades which were linked to the same company. The quarterly loss of Nomura Holdings had increased to USD 2.3 billion as there was a decline in the value of the collateral.

    As of 23 April 2021, the company has disposed of 97 % of the positions that are related to Archegos. The loss has occurred at Nomura’s prime brokerage unit through a business dealing with family offices and hedge funds.

    Strategy of Nomura Holdings

    Nomura Holdings has said that the company has reviewed all its positions in the units as well as the loans provided to the investors. The review has not shown any transactions which are problematic compared to Archegos.

    The company said that it would focus on strengthening its framework in regards to the management of its risk by working together with the experts in the industry outside the company.

    The CFO of the company Takumi Kitamura has said that this loss wouldn’t change the focus of the company on developing a business platform globally and doing business with the wealthy and risky investors.

    He added that there wouldn’t be any change in their strategy of doing business especially with the overseas business that includes the trading business as well.

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    Further Steps

    The CEO of Nomura Holdings, Kentaro Okuda had expressed a deep regret in regards to the huge loss faced by the company saying that otherwise, it would have been a great year for Nomura Holdings. He has promised that it wouldn’t be repeated.

    He added on saying that they have created a lot of anxiety for their customers and shareholders and said that they will take the issue very seriously and make sure that such as situation will not repeat in the future by upgrading their risk management.

    Okuda said that his responsibility is to create a platform to manage risk in a better way. The huge loss was recorded after Okuda finished his first year as CEO of the company. He was formerly the head of Nomura’s U.S operations.

    Risk Management

    In order to strengthen the risk management, the company has appointed a new CEO who was the former senior of J.P Morgan. The company stated Christopher Willcox was the new co-CEO and President of Nomura Securities International.

    Willcox has worked with J.P Morgan and is a former CEO of J.P Morgan Asset Management. He has also worked with the Citi group for a term of 15 years.

    FAQ

    Is Nomura a Japanese bank?

    Nomura is a Japanese financial holding company and a principal member of the Nomura Group.

    What are the big 4 investment banks?

    JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, BofA Securities and Morgan Stanley are the big 4 investment banks.

    What is the meaning of margin call?

    A margin call is usually an indicator that one or more of the securities held in the margin account has decreased in value. When a margin call occurs, the investor must choose to either deposit more money in the account or sell some of the assets held in their account.

    Conclusion

    The company has decided to focus on providing prime brokerage services to wealthy investors and to continue to do business with family offices. Kitamura added on saying that Family offices will continue to be one of the most important clients for them.

  • How Tesla is planning to make every home a Distributed Power Plant

    Tesla which is known for the sales of electric vehicles also deals with the sale of clean energy products. Recently Elon Musk who is the CEO of Tesla has said that he wants to make a distributed power plant in every home. Let’s look at how Tesla is planning to make it possible.

    New Company Policy of Tesla

    The CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk wants to make a distributed power plant in each and every home. The distributed power plant will generate, store and even deliver the energy back into the electricity grid. All these will be possible by just using the products of Tesla.

    The company has been involved in the sale of solar and energy related products for quite a few years. Elon Musk on 26 April 2021 commented a new company policy which states that Tesla will only sell solar products coupled with energy storage products.

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    Tesla’s Strategy

    The new company policy is a strategy that is aimed to scale the energy product business of Tesla by showing it in the form of essential utilities. During an investor call, Elon Musk said that the new strategy has a successful future for utilities as well as Tesla.

    He added on saying that, if this is not done then the utilities will fail to serve the customers and said that the utilities will not be able to do it. He came up with this strategy noticing the blackouts last summer in California and the most recent failures in the grid in Texas. These incidents have become a big concern on the reliability of the grid.

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    Changes to the Tesla Website

    Last week, Tesla had bough some changes to its website. The company had changed the options on the website to prevent customers from only buying solar or its Powerwall energy storage products. The customer had the option to only purchase the entire system.

    Elon Musk later posted a tweet that stated that the solar power will feed the energy completely to the Powerwall and the Powerwall will use it only between the utility meter and the main breaker panel of the house. He said that these features will enable a super simple install and will provide a house backup seamlessly during utility dropouts.

    Tesla Website
    Tesla Website

    Elon Musk’s view

    Elon Musk’s statement says that, the grid will need more power lines, larger substations and more power plants in order to use renewable resources and storage to decarbonize fully. In Elon Musk’s view distributed residential systems using the products of Tesla will provide a better path.

    A recent study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has backed up the claim of Elon Musk by finding that the United States can decarbonize fully by more than doubling the transmission capacity of the grid.

    Another study from Princeton University has shown that the country will have to triple its transmission capacity of the grid to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

    According to the imagination of Elon Musk, the electric grid system is completely different from the one we have today. He wants a grid system that is centrally controlled and run by the grid operators or the independent organizations such as the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas or the California Independent System operator. The vision is to solve the logistic and the bureaucratic challenges.

    He said that there should be a policy on the Utility and the Regulatory to solve the problem on the ways to handle the large entry of people on the distributed energy resources such as installation of solar panel on residencies which may run opposite to the utilities that are long established on the business models.

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    FAQ

    Who owned Tesla before Elon Musk?

    Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning started the original Tesla Motors in 2003.

    Who was the first CEO of Tesla?

    Martin Forest Eberhard was the first CEO of Tesla.

    Who is the CEO of SpaceX?

    Elon Musk is the CEO of SpaceX.

    Conclusion

    However, the important point to be noted is whether just renewable energy storage is sufficient to achieve net-zero carbon emissions through the grid system. Elon Musk had always been positive towards the model of renewables plus storage. In July 2020 he had tweeted that physics favors electric transport, solar or wind for energy generation and batteries for stationary storage.