Archive for the ‘Africa’ Category

Ford Sells Volvo To Geely

Posted by Amita Kalra on March 28th, 2010

American multinational Ford Motor Co. has sold its Volvo brand to Chinese Automaker Geely Automobile, in a $1.8 billion virtual all-cash deal. This is China’s largest off shore auto deal.

Ford bought Volvo in 1999 for $6.45 billion, then struggled to make the brand profitable as the U.S. auto industry slumped. It began looking for potential buyers for Volvo in 2008. By October 2009, Geely was named the preferred bidder, and the two sides had been negotiating since. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter, Ford said in a press release. Ford will not retain any ownership in Volvo.

“We think it’s a fair price for a good business, and yes, we’re happy with the deal we’ve achieved with Geely,” Lewis Booth, Ford’s chief financial officer, told the Associated Press. “Volvo can continue to build its business and return to profitability.”

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Apple iPad To Come With 30,000 Free E-books

Posted by Amita Kalra on March 26th, 2010

The iPad, which is the second tablet computer developed by Apple is in fact a touch-screen computer that falls between a laptop and a smartphone. It’s almost here, and creating quite a bit of buzz ahead of its April 3 launch.

According to a report from AppAdvice, it will come with around 30,000 public domain books via Project Gutenberg. This is a sizable library that will now fit onto one’s nightstand, and with many great titles, it should thrill both avid and casual readers alike. Also these free titles will come along with a number of paid titles from most major publishers. The Project Gutenberg organization works to put public domain works into electronic format. Focusing on high quality nonfiction and literature, the collection includes the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes novels, Charles Dickens, author of A Tale of Two Cities and A Christmas Carol, and even Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. Access will be granted through the Stanza reader.

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Google Vs China – The Battle Is On

Posted by Amita Kalra on March 25th, 2010

In a business plan that continues to become more complicated by the minute, Google’s Chinese blunder is one that consistently continues to backfire. As Chinese partners close doors on the internet giant it is apparent that censorship in the Chinese domain is one that Google will not be able to avoid.

On Thursday, a public-relations director for Sina Corp., a popular Chinese Internet portal that carries a Google search bar, said it is considering finding a new search partner. This came just a day after Tianya.cn, which runs a leading online forum, said it plans to discontinue cooperation with Google on some projects. On Wednesday, TOM Group Ltd., a media company controlled by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-Shing, said it had removed Google’s search bar from its Chinese portal.

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Pepsi Co Develops Designer Salt

Posted by Amita Kalra on March 22nd, 2010

PepsiCo Inc, has reportedly developed a new ‘designer salt’ whose crystals are shaped and sized in a way that limits the amount of sodium intake, of the consumer. The production will begin at a pilot manufacturing plant in Texas, later this month.

This salt, it is expected, will cut sodium levels by 25% in its Lay’s Classic potato chips and even more than that in seasoned Lay’s chips like Sour Cream & Onion, PepsiCo said, and it could be used in other products like Cheetos and Quaker bars. It is still being studied and tested with consumers though.

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Bharti Gets $8.3 Billion in Funding for Zain Purchase

Posted by Amita Kalra on March 21st, 2010

Bharti Airtel, India’s largest mobile phone operator by subscribers, said on Sunday that it has tied up $8.3 billion in funding to buy most of the African assets of Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications Co. This takes it yet another step closer to concluding the deal, for which they had made an attempt in February. The deal is estimated to be about $9 billion in cash. It marks the Indian company’s latest attempt to enter a fast-growing overseas market as intense competition and price wars shrink its growth at home.

While Standard Chartered PLC is the lead arranger and adviser for $7.5 billion in financing, with Barclays Bank PLC as a joint lead adviser, other co-arrangers and advisers include State Bank of India Group, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd, BNP Paribas S.A., Bank of America Merrill Lynch , Credit Agricole CIB, DBS Bank, HSBC, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., Bharti said.

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Google’s new TV Initiative

Posted by Amita Kalra on March 18th, 2010

In a quest to move it’s technology from the computer screen to the TV screen, and consequently from the office to the living room, Google has now partnered with Sony Corp and Intel Corp clearly aiming at grabbing the eyeballs just about everywhere they go.

This includes software to help users navigate among Web based offerings on television sets, and also, serve as a platform for other developers to create new programs. Technology could be included with future TVs, Blu-ray players or set-top boxes. Google is clearly looking to get its foot in the door in the market so it can reap the money to be earned form more advertising viewers.

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Tata Motors Hires Carl Peter Forster as CEO

Posted by Amita Kalra on February 15th, 2010

Tata Motors, the world’s fourth largest truck manufacturer, has hired Carl Peter Forster, former Europe head of General Motors Co, as the Chief Executive Officer. He will be in charge of Indian operations, both local and exports, along with the U.K. based premium brands Jaguar and Land Rover which were acquired in 2008. Forster, 55, will work out of Mumbai, and have “overall responsibility” of the company’s global operations. Tata Motors’ global operations also comprise Hispano Carrocera –the Spanish bus maker it completed acquiring in October 2009–and its South Korean commercial vehicle venture, Tata Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Co.

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Bharti Airtel Bids For Zain

Posted by Amita Kalra on February 14th, 2010

In a deal valued roughly at $10.7 billion, India’s largest mobile phone company (by subscribers), Bharti Airtel, today offered to buy the African operations of Zain, a Kuwaiti telecommunications company.

Zain currently has more than 40 million subscribers in Africa, about 62 percent of its client base. More than half of its $7.2 billion annual sales in 2008 came from Africa. Its shares have gone up nearly 23 percent last week, giving it a value of 4.64 billion Kuwaiti dinars (16 billion dollars).

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Google Buzz And Privacy Violation

Posted by Amita Kalra on February 13th, 2010

Last Wednesday, Google added the much-buzzed-about Google Buzz, to its Gmail web-based email service. This social networking feature comes pre-populated with friends, added on the basis of which Gmail contacts users emailed most often.

In a nutshell, it offers its 176 million users the space to share updates, videos, photos and other content – providing them the functionality of Facebook and Twitter, with the organicity of Gmail. However, in the past few days, Google also faced the flak, for having made Gmail contacts public through Google profiles.

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McDonald’s global sales rise 2.6% in January

Posted by Amita Kalra on February 9th, 2010

Fast food giant and world’s biggest restaurant company, Mc Donald’s, today posted a 2.6% rise in the global same store sales in January. Perhaps taking a cue from the CVS Q4 results that came out yesterday, Mc Donald’s too, as a pleasant surprise, beat analysts’ expectations. Global sales were predicted to rise 2 percent, the average of estimates from analysts at Barclays Capital, Jefferies & Co. and Robert W. Baird. U.S. sales were projected to be unchanged.

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