SPRINT LAUNCHES ITS FIRST WIMAX MARKET

New YorkThe Economic Times Sprint Nextel Corp announced a one-market launch of Xohm, its next generation high-speed wireless data service based on WiMax, with pay-per-day options as well as monthly service fees. The Monday launch in Baltimore, Maryland, comes before Sprint's expected completion in the fourth quarter of a venture with Clearwire Corp to build a larger network based on WiMax, which promises to blanket entire cities with wireless Internet access. Sprint, which has been working to stem customer losses from its existing services,...

APPLE TUMBLES ON CONSUMER SPENDING CONCERNS

BostonThe Economic Times Apple Inc shares tumbled 16 percent on Monday, their biggest drop in seven years, amid concerns the maker of Mac computers and other consumer electronics will suffer as the economy slows. Two brokerages cut their price targets, earnings forecasts and stock recommendations on the company, which also makes iPod music players and iPhones. "We worry that consensus estimates have not been revised down to reflect slowing global consumer demand and that a broadly positive investment bias ... limits upside to (Apple)...

NOKIA TO SELL SECURITY APPLIANCES BUSINESS

HelsinkiThe Economic Times The world's top cellphone maker Nokia said on Monday it would focus its services development on consumers rather than businesses. Nokia said it was in advanced talks to sell its security appliances business to a financial investor, while it would halt development and marketing of its "behind-the-firewall" corporate software. The measures will affect in total around 700 staff, it said....

DISH TUMBLES AFTER AT&T PICKS DIRECTV

New YorkThe Economic Times Shares in DISH Network Corp fell more than 14 percent on Monday after phone company AT&T Inc said it would end a marketing agreement with the satellite company next year in favor of a pact with DISH's rival DIRECTV Group. AT&T said on Friday that after its five-year contract with DISH ends on Jan 31, DirecTV would take over a multiyear partnership to jointly sell video services alongside AT&T's fixed line phone, wireless phone and high speed Internet. DirecTV will be the video partner in regions...

NEW SOFTWARE TURNS PC INTO TIVO TV RECORDER

New YorkThe Economic Times TiVo Inc. and Nero AG of Germany were set to announce Monday that they will be launching a package that turns a Windows PC into a TV recorder, just like a TiVo set-top box. The kit will cost $199 when it goes on sale Oct. 15, and includes a remote and a TV tuner that plugs into the PC. The interface on the computer screen looks just like the one on a TV equipped with a TiVo box. It's not the first software that allows TV recording on the PC. That's been possible for years on computers equipped with TV tuners,...

EMPHASIS ON ANALYTICS: THE KEY TO EFFICIENT CUSTOMER SERVICE

Santanu MishraThe Economic Times The Advent of information technology (IT) has changed the way transactions are done. Simple banking transactions such as cash withdrawal, which used to consume a lot of time, can now be executed within minutes. Today, IT has become an indispensable tool for not just banking, but all sectors. Given the phase of consolidation in India Inc, the role of technology has gradually changed. Due to increasing competition, managing information has become strategic in nature for many industries like banking, retail...

BT PUTS TECH MAHINDRA STAKE SALE ON BACK BURNER

N Shivapriya & Rashmi Pratap, MumbaiThe Economic Times UK telecom major British Telecom (BT) is learnt to have put the sale of its stake in Tech Mahindra on the back burner following the dramatic collapse of Wall Street’s giants. “BT has temporarily put the process on the hold because of bad market conditions,” sources told ET. Although the market was bearish when BT had initiated discussions for the stake sale, there was no crisis of the current scale and impact. “BT would not like to sell in such a market,” said the source. The...

DELL'S LEARNING CENTRE IN HYD

Chennai, Hyderabad Business Standard Leading personal computer seller, Dell, opened its learning centre at the SOS Children’s Village in Vottinagulapally near Hyderabad on Monday. The centre will have a computer room with 20 PCs with Internet capability, a music room comprising instruments like drums, tabla, guitar, sitar, harmonium and synthesiser, and a library room with books and CDs ranging from academic, entertainment and general knowledge. Addressing mediapersons, Rajeev Kapoor, site director (Hyderabad, Dell International Services),...

INFOTECH EYES ACQUISITION WORTH $40 MILLION IN GERMANY

MumbaiThe Economic Times Mint Software services firm Infotech Enterprises is eyeing an acquisition in Germany for its design engineering business, Chairman BK Mohan Reddy told a news channel on Monday. The acquisition is worth $40 million, he added....

SYMPHONY TECHNOLOGY LINES UP $900 MILLION FOR ACQUISITIONS

Shivani Shinde & Kalpana Pathak, Mumbai Business Standard Symphony Technology Group (STG), the US-based strategic holding company founded by an Indian, plans to invest $900 million (around Rs 4,230 crore) to expand its group firms over the next three to four years. “Most of the $900 million will be spent on acquisitions. The current economic environment does not change our strategy, which is to invest in companies in the US, Europe and India,” Romesh Wadhwani, chairman, STG, said. Wadhwani had earlier said that his acquisition targets...

AXON OFFER MAY STRAIN HCL TECH ACCOUNTS

The Hindu Business Line HCL Technologies’ ambition of expanding its enterprise application services has found expression in its £441 million offer for the Axon Group in the UK. But if the offer goes through, HCL Tech will be introducing debt and interest charges in its balance sheet, which hitherto featured negligible leverage. Media reports suggest that HCL Tech would borrow £400 million at 6.5 percent to fund this deal. The rest is from internal accruals. HCL Tech had about Rs 2,460 crore of cash (around £290 million) as of June 2008....

CALSOFT DEVELOPS SPECIALISED MODULE IN ORACLE IMPLEMENTATION

ChennaiMint The Economic Times (Delhi edition) Software solution provider California Software (Calsoft) has developed a specialised module in Oracle implementation. Beehive is a collaboration tool announced by Oracle that takes messages from calenders, instant messaging and email and displays them in a unified format, according to a release issued here today. The tool was under development for three years. Beehive was an open platform that can work with many of the industry’s most popular platforms. Beehive’s security model has a...

SUBEX WINS $50 MILLION ORDER FROM BT

Krishnan Raghu, BangaloreMint The Hindu Business Line The Economic Times (Mumbai edition) DNA Hindustan Times Subex Ltd, a Bangalore telecom software firm said it won an order of $50 million or Rs 235 crore from British Telecom Plc, to provide fraud detection and revenue assurance software and offer their services over three years. The framework contract specifically covers fraud detection, domestic and international interconnect, international billing and settlements and event integrity, it said in a statement. BT is already an existing...

NASSCOM MAY REVISE EXPORT GROWTH FORECAST

New Delhi Business Standard The Economic Times The Hindu Business Line The Financial Express The Hindu The Telegraph Deccan Chronicle The Asian Age Information Technology's trade body National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) will revise its industry growth forecast in the first week of December. Though the industry would be able to meet the $60-billion target for 2010, the body may revise software exports growth forecast downwards by few percentage points for 2008-09 due to the US financial turmoil. "The...

INTEL HAS DESIGNS FOR PUNE UNIV

Farah H ChitalwalaDNA University of Pune has tied up with Intel India, to offer an MSc in VLSI design,"Intel has partnered with us on curriculum design and provides visiting faculty for specific topics," says, Dr PB Vidyasagar, director, board of college and university development, University of Pune. The company also provides six month internships to the students and recruited three out of the 10 students of the pilot batch. "VLSI design is the process of creating integrated circuits which are used in consumer electronics like computers,...

AGILENT SET TO LAUNCH NEXT-GEN DNA SEQUENCER

HyderabadThe Hindu Business Line Agilent Technologies, the $5.4-billion global measurement company, is set to launch the next-generation DNA sequencer by end of 2008. The new high throughput crunching machine would be able to do pinpointed sequencing of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) of portions of the human genome. This would, in effect, mean faster and cheaper method of getting the desired genetic information from the sample of an individual. At present, DNA sequencers rapidly sequence the entire genome, giving out large amounts of data....

APPLE SELLS UNLOCKED IPHONES IN HONG KONG

September 28, 2008The Times of India Apple has started selling unlocked models of its popular iPhone 3G in Hong Kong, which allow users the freedom to select the telecoms provider of their choice. Apple said the phone can be activated with any wireless carrier. The move is a shift from Apple’s previous strategy of tying the phone exclusively to a single mobile operator in each country or territory. As you can imagine, the unlocked sans-contract version of the iPhone 3G comes at a premium over the subsidized with-contract version that we...

AT&T PICKS DIRECTV FOR JOINT TV BUNDLE, DROPS DISH

New York, September 28, 2008 The Economic Times DirecTV Group Inc, the largest US satellite television provider, said on Friday AT&T Inc had picked it to offer a co-branded package of video, home telephone, wireless phone and Internet service from Feb 1, 2009. The news mean AT&T will not be renewing its five-year partnership with DISH Network Corp raising new concern about future of the second largest satellite TV provider. DirecTV will begin selling the joint service in a new multi-year contract once AT&T's current partnership...

MALTA WOOS INDIAN INVESTORS TO SET UP BUSINESSES

Chennai, September 28, 2008 The Economic Times Malta today said it would provide various incentives to aspiring Indian companies for settling up operations in the European island nation. "Malta, the newest entry into the European Union, is a well-connected investment location, which boasts of an advanced communications set-up and business environment", Malta's High Commissioner H E Wilfred Kenely told reporters here at an event organised by South India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI). "Malta Enterprise Act (ME Act) provides...

AWARD FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE

Coimbatore, September 29, 2008 The Hindu Business Line Expertus has received the Chief Learning Officer (CLO) Magazine's `Learning in Practice' award for excellence in customer service. The award was presented at the CLO symposium held in Coronado, California. Expertus has, in a release, said that the company won for its work with global networking company's IT learning group. Expertus helped the organisation combine all classes into a global catalogue, designed tools to track and manage scheduling activities, booking/ cancellation,...

BIG OPPORTUNITY IN SMALL COS

September 29, 2008The Economic Times Global majors Microsoft, Cisco, IBM and Xerox generate over 50% to their India revenues from small and medium businesses by offering relevant products. Like in all other eco-systems, the small and the big coexist in business, making each other relevant for each other. Take for instance, the information technology business. While all of us would think that the biggies of the business depend primarily on multinational giants to jack up their toplines, many of them are increasingly turning towards small...

SWITZERLAND TO TAP NANO-TECH TALENT

Sanjay Vijay Kumar, Chennai, September 29, 2008Financial Chronicle Switzerland, which has been at the forefront of the nanotechnology curve, is in shortage of engineers in this core-competitive sector and would recruit people from all over the world, including India, Christian D Watts, regional director, Swiss business hub for IMEA (India, Middle East and Africa) said. Micro and nano technology are among technology fields with greatest potential for innovation. The country has significant technological and scientific know-how in the segment....

SEZ UNITS MAY NOT GET 100% TAX BREAK FOR NOW

Amiti Sen, New Delhi, September 29, 2008The Economic Times A number of units in special economic zones (SEZs), especially those set up by IT companies, may not get 100% tax exemption on profits, at least for the next few months. The empowered group of ministers (eGoM) on SEZs does not seem keen to review section 10 AA (7) of the Income-Tax Act which states that only a proportion of profits, based on the proportion of export sales from the SEZ unit to the total turnover of the company, will be exempt from taxation. The commerce department...

HCL TIES UP £400-M LOAN FOR AXON OFFER AT 6.5%

Moumita Bakshi Chatterjee, New Delhi, September 29, 2008The Hindu Business Line HCL Technologies, which rivaled Infosys’ bid for Axon Group, has tied up the £400-million loan component to fund its offer, at an attractive interest rate of about 6.5 percent per annum, based on the current dollar LIBOR rate. According to sources, the borrowing has been structured in such a way that the loan attracts a dollar LIBOR instead of pound. “The loan carries an option for HCL Technologies to draw down in equivalent of dollars. This is a commercially...

CHECK POINT SHIPS ADVANCED SOFTWARE TO INDIA

New Delhi, September 28, 2008 Business Standard Nasdaq-listed Internet security provider Check Point Software Technologies has announced that it has begun shipping of a new version of Check Point Endpoint Security, the first single agent for endpoint security to combine the highest-rated firewall, network access control (NAC), program control, remote access, antivirus, antispyware, full disk encryption and media encryption with port protection in Ind...

IBS TO DEPLOY ITS SOLUTION FOR MALDIVIAN

Chennai/ Thiruvananthapuram, September 29, 2008Business Standard Thiruvananthapuram-based IBS Software will deploy its new-generation passenger service system aiRES for Maldivian, the national airline of Maldives. The solution is to help Maldivian manage its passenger reservations, inventory control, fares and ticketing, and departure control functions. Maldivian has chosen IBS’ solution for its cost-effectiveness; optimum fit, short implementation time and flexible features that include web distribution, GDS, and credit card payment...

SEMI-CONDUCTOR PROJECTS GALORE

New Delhi, September 29, 2008 Business Standard The Indian semi-conductor industry lobbied hard and eventually obtained an elaborate package of incentives from the government to enable India to secure a foothold in the global semi-conductor play. But market forces have caused a range of private projects to be announced, and action has been taken on some of them even before any incentives have been sanctioned! Over a dozen proposals have been announced, proposing a massive investment of Rs 1,36,000 crore. Work has already started on a couple...

SMALL COS EMBRACE ALL-IN-ONE IDEOLOGY

September 29, 2008The Economic Times It wasn't long ago when a printer was just another printer - it did what it was supposed to do - Print! Fastforward to today, there has been a near 180-degree shift. As business demands increase, the printer is morphing beyond its core functions, offering customers more value for money and is rapidly evolving. While printers have added copying functionality, copiers have added print controllers. As a result, the printer and copier markets are converging. Printer-based MFPs typically offer the lowest...

HP TO EXPAND BIZ IN INDIA

Vinod Mishra, Hong Kong, September 29, 2008The Times of India Hewlett-Packard, world's largest technology company, will be expanding its retail business in India to further strengthen its consumer leadership. HP will roll out 7,500 new stores in 1,000 cities and experience stores across Asia Pacific region. With these new stores, HP will broaden its consumer reach to 25,000 retail partner stores in the region by 2010. "We have a massive plan and a large number of new stores will be based in India," Christopher Morgan, senior vice-president,...

WEP LAUNCHES MANAGED SECURITY SERVICES

New Delhi, September 28, 2008 Business Standard Bangalore-headquartered IT services provider WEP Solutions has launched its managed security services business. With its new managed security services (MSS) offerings, WEP solutions will cater to the security needs of mid-sized and large enterprises. WEP solutions MSS addresses business risk mitigation, business asset protection and business productivity by delivering an end-to-end security services offer...

C-DAC LAUNCHES NEW SOFTWARE

Chennai, September 28, 2008 Business Standard Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), has launched a new software BOSS (Bharat Operating Systems Solutions) Linux 3.0 in 18 Indian languages which will help the governments across the country in rolling out their e-governance initiatives. The free open source software can be installed on C-DAC’s website. C-DAC has also signed an agreement for deploying this new operating system with four states including, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Bihar and Tamil Nadu. By the end of the year, five...

NOW, GOOGLE LETS DEVELOPERS CUSTOMISE APPLICATIONS FOR G-PHONE

San FranciscoThe Economic Times Google has released a kit for software developers to create fun, hip or functional programs for the "G-phone" in a direct challenge to Apple's hot-selling iPhone. The Android 1.0 software developers kit lets computer programming wizards customize applications that will work on the open-source platform built into the G1 handsets being brought to market by telecom carrier T-Mobile. The T-Mobile G1 phones are heralded as the first of a generation of devices built on the Google-led Android operating platform....

WEB WILL RUN OUT OF IP ADDRESSES, SAYS 'FATHER' OF INTERNET

LondonFinancial Chronicle The "father" of the Internet has warned that the web will run out of IP addresses by 2010, saying the web does not have enough unique codes that allow computers to communicate with each other. Vint Cerf, the "father" of the web, said when the Internet protocol (IP) addresses do run out, the connectivity of the Internet will be damaged and many computers will be unable to go online. "This is like the Internet running out of telephone numbers and with no new numbers, you can't have more subscribers," Cerf was...

NOKIA SPREADING SOFTWARE BETS AFTER SYMBIAN BUY

HelsinkiThe Economic Times Nokia is quietly extending its knowledge base in the free Linux operating system to give it extra options in the battle for mobile software supremacy with Google and Apple. The world's leading handset manufacturer has publicly made a big bet on Symbian software, offering $410 million to buy out other shareholders in the consortium and committing to opening the software up for free use when the deal is approved. Nokia says Symbian plays a central role in its software strategy, but analysts say the role of Linux...

INFO EDGE INVESTS RS 20 CRORE IN ETECHACES

MumbaiThe Economic Times Business Standard Leading Internet company, Info Edge, on Thursday announced an investment of Rs 20-crore towards a 49 percent equity stake in eTechAces Marketing and Consulting Private Limited. The investment would be made in tranches based on performance milestones, a press release issued here stated. eTechAces Marketing is a company in the business of distributing financial products online. eTechAces Marketing and Consulting is headed by a team of professionals experienced in the financial and the travel...

VISHAL IT PLANNING BUYS IN UK, EUROPE

MumbaiBusiness Standard Chennai-based Vishal Information Technologies is planning acquisitions in the UK and continental Europe. The proposal will be considered by the board at its meeting on October 01, 2008, the company said in a statement. The company will consider issuing either Global Depository Receipts or raising External Commercial Borrowings (ECB) routes to raise fund for the acquisitio...

ATLANTA’S E-BIX EYES INDIAN SOFTWARE FIRM

Vishal Kant, New DelhiFinancial Chronicle Atlanta-based E-Bix.com is in the process of taking over an Indian software company. E-Bix is a leading international developer and supplier of software and e-commerce solutions to the insurance and banking industry with its business spread across in US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Canada and India. "We cannot share the name of the company at this stage. The company is listed on the BSE. It is undervalued on the bourses at this stage, but has a strong consumer base in the US," Robin...

3I INFOTECH MULLS 12,000 SELF-SERVICE KIOSKS

Shyamala Seetharamanan, Chennai Financial Chronicle IT company 3i Infotech will invest close to Rs 200 crore in the next 18 months to set up about 12,000 self-service kiosks across different states. The company has won deals from state governments including Tamil Nadu, Goa, Gujarat and Haryana. The citizen service centres will help to pay utility bills and apply for certificates including those that require mandatory registrations — land, birth and death. “About 30 per cent of the amount will be spent from internal accruals and the...

SYSCON TO OFFER ITS SOLUTION THROUGH SAAS

K Rajani Kanth, Chennai/Hyderabad Business Standard Syscon Solutions, a Hyderabad-based software product development company, will expand its sales and implementation ecosystem to cater to the small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The company plans to offer its enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution – Syscon Cronus – via the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. Cronus, which involved around 150 man-years of development efforts, is an out-of-box ERP solution focused on SMEs with functions including sales, inventory, excise, financial...

ISOFT OPENS GLOBAL PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT CENTRE

BangaloreThe Economic Times Financial Chronicle Deccan Herald Business Standard iSOFT, an Australian leading provider of healthcare software solutions, today announced the opening of its global product development centre here. Govind S, Managing Director, iSOFT said: "The new facility will double our capacity in Bangalore, which is an important market for us both because of its strategic location and the knowledge-base that is available". "iSOFT will be undertaking high-end product development at its centre of excellence, providing...

OLPC EYES 1 MILLION LAPTOP SALES IN INDIA

Harsimran Singh, New Delhi The Economic Times US-based One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) plans to sell one million laptops in India, each with a price tag of about $300 (including deployment) in the next twelve months. The Massachusetts-headquartered association, which set up its office in the capital this month, claims to have already gathered sponsorship commitments from six top business houses for distributing about one million laptops to primary school children. Sources say that the OLPC is also talking to major companies like Infosys,...

HP LAUNCHES COMPAQ NOTEBOOKS

Chennai/Bangalore Business Standard The Economic Times Financial Chronical Deccan Herald The Hindu Hewlett-Packard (HP), a leading consumer Notebook PC brand in India, today announced the launch of its new series of Compaq notebooks targetted at young customers, a growing market segment for portables. The nine series designed with preferences of the youth in mind and their needs for connectivity, entertainment and productivity, has factored in features like built in TV tuner card, blue ray drive and an infra red remote control. ...

PHILIPS ATC LAB ADOPTS TEKTRONIX FOR TESTING

BangaloreDeccan Herald Tektronix, Inc., worldwide provider of test, measurement and monitoring instrumentation, announced on Thursday that the new Philips High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) Authorized Testing Center (ATC) in Bangalore has adopted the Tektronix HDMI V1.3b1 Compliance Test Solution (CTS). The adoption of Tektronix HDMI compliance test solution by Philips, one of the key founders of HDMI, reinforces Tektronix leadership for HDMI test solutions, said the company. HDMI is a high-speed serial data interface between...

NEW YORK TRANSIT ADDED TO GOOGLE'S MAP SERVICE

New YorkThe Economic Times Google has added the biggest public transportation system in the US to its popular mapping service, showing travelers how to navigate New York City's mass transit system. As of Tuesday, people looking up locations in the city get public transit options alongside driving directions. The feature includes information about subways, buses and commuter railroads. New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority and some other organizations already provide transit trip planners, but Google executives note that their...

GOOGLE PHONE WINS CHEERS, REQUESTS FOR BETTER

New YorkThe Economic Times Nice try with the new phone, Google. Better luck next time. That's what some seem to be saying about Google Inc's first foray into the world of cell phones. But while it may not attract long lines like Apple Inc's iPhone, it offers much to those looking to use their phones for more than talking. So what's it like? The G1, which is made for Google by HTC Corp and sold by Deutsche Telekom unit T-Mobile, actually resembles an older handset the Sidekick, a soapbar-shaped phone also created by G1 designer Andy...

DELL WANTS TO SELL EMERGING CONSUMERS THEIR 1ST PC

London Financial Chronicle Dell hopes its new retail drive to sell in stores rather than just online will help it sell to consumers in emerging markets buying their first computer, Chief Executive Michael Dell said on Tuesday. Dell, the world's second-biggest computer maker, has recently switched from a pure online and phone sales model to build an expanding network of retail stores, putting its PCs and laptops within the reach of consumers without Internet access. Asked at an emerging markets conference organised by the Economist whether...

ASUSTEK SEES EUROPE GROWTH

Financial Chronicle Asustek, the world’s top motherboard producer, expects sales of its branded products in Europe to rise as much as 58 percent this year, hoping that its product mix will make up for slowing global demand. Asustek, a Taiwanese company that also sells laptops under its own name, is aiming for sales in Europe to reach $5 billion to $6 billion this year, up from $3.8 billion last year, said Eric Chen, Asustek’s regional head for the European market. Europe contributes 50 percent of Asustek’s total sales of branded products,...

ORACLE, HP TEAM UP ON DATABASE HARDWARE

BostonThe Economic Times Oracle Corp, the world's No 3 software maker is teaming up with Hewlett-Packard Co to sell powerful, specialized computers that companies use to analyze data on their business activities. The move, which Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison announced on Wednesday, will expand Oracle's footprint in the hardware business and put pressure on smaller players Teradata Corp and Netezza, which specialize in selling those devices, known as data warehouse appliances. Forrester Research analyst James Kobielus said that...

TAX DEPT MUST ACCEPT COS' AUDITED ACCOUNTS: SC

Sanjay K Singh, New Delhi The Economic Times The Supreme Court has said the Income-Tax Department has to accept the authenticity of the accounts maintained in accordance with the provisions of the Companies Act and certified by the auditors. The assessing officer cannot go beyond the net profit shown in the profit and loss account, except to examine whether the books of accounts were duly certified by the authorities and properly maintained, the court said. A bench comprising Justice S H Kapadia and Justice B S Reddy said: “The AO (assessing...

CONTROVERSIAL PATENT BUYER TO START INDIAN OPERATIONS IN OCT

Jacob P. Koshy, New Delhi Mint Individual inventors and research organizations here may find their patents turning liquid with the imminent entry of Intellectual Ventures Llc., a controversial company that owns an estimated 20,000 patents and is in the market for as many more as it can lay its hands on. The company has already entered into agreements to buy patents from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, and is close to signing an agreement with the Council for Scientific and Industrial...