Technology, Venture Capital, Private Equity

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2

On Microsoft?s search strategy
2008-05-30 14:45:00
Last week, there was an extremely interesting exchange of views on Microsoft ’s search strategy between Tim O’Reilly and Michael Arrington. See: http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2008/05 /microhoo-corporate-penis-envy.html http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/25/the- importance-of-a-competitive-search-market / http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2008/05 /why-search-competition-isnt-the-point.ht ml Tim seems to think that MS’s efforts are directed in the wrong direction since search as we now know it is essentially a “done deal”. On the other hand, Mike argues that Google is headed ...
More About: Strategy , Search

Where?s the VMWare for the network?
2008-05-16 06:38:00
I was reading a post by Henry Blodget on how Google ’s search income is beginning to close in on MS’s revenues from Windows, which is unnerving the latter. In the comments section, there were many who remarked, “Why should MS feel threatened? After all, there is no connection between the two.” However, the fact of ...
More About: Network , Ware , Vmware

Microhoo - the circus has just begun
2008-05-05 07:08:00
Looks like the business world in the US  has taken a penchant for frenzied activity over the weekends.  If it was the Bear Stearns episode a few weekends back, it was the Microhoo - will they, won’t they saga unfolding in all its drama last weekend finally ending pretty unventfully with leaders of both companies ...
More About: Yahoo , Circus

Congratulations to UTI Ventures
2008-04-24 07:20:00
One of the factors holding back entrepreneurial activity in India has been the lack of enough motivational success stories. An important turning point in the history of PE investing in India was the stupendous success of the Bharti Telecom investment by Warburg Pincus. The multiple times return on capital they earned made other foreign investors ...
More About: Congratulations , Ventures

Stagflation may actually benefit the US
2008-04-02 06:48:00
Amidst all the gloomy news coming out from the US economy, the one silver lining has been the uptick that its exports have been demonstrating for the past few weeks. This is mainly attributable to the plunge in the dollar against most world currencies, rendering exports more competitive. Given the recency of this phenomenon, its ...
More About: Stagflation , Benefit

The myth of ?recession proof?
2008-03-11 07:50:00
It goes without saying that recessions by definition are difficult times for businesses in general. Yet, often we hear how some businesses/economies/countries are more protected from recession than others. But, on closer examination, it becomes evident that such defences from downturns are either mythical or marginal at best. The three instances of this from the ...
More About: Proof , Recession , Myth

Top 20 banks in the world
2008-02-28 10:06:00
One of the purported strengths of India over China is supposedly our well developed financial and banking infrastructure. Therefore, it came as a surprise to me to learn that 3 of the top 5 banks (by mkt cap) in the world today are from China and the Indian banks are nowhere in the picture. HSBC, btw ...
More About: World , Banks , The World

The Wockhardt debacle, and what it means
2008-02-08 06:28:00
It’s been one hell of a week for the markets, swinging wildly like a yo-yo and if all that wasn’t enough, in the midst of it, we have the Wockhardt IPO fiasco. I can’t recall any other instance in recent memory when such a renowned company had to withdraw its IPO the way Wockhardt has ...

Sub prime ruminations (Part 2)
2008-01-15 07:15:00
Discovered how hard it is to get back to writing after a long break. Hence, the second part of the post on this topic comes after a while. However, developments in the past week have provided the ideal backdrop for this piece. Tata’s launch of the “world’s cheapest car”, Nano and Citigroup and Merrill Lynch ...
More About: Part , Prime

HSBC Private Equity invests in Newgen
2008-01-08 04:48:00
Announcing our first investment of 2008 (though it was actually consummated some time back). We have invested USD 7.5 million in Newgen Software Technologies Limited, a New Delhi headquartered software product company. Newgen makes Business Process Management (BPM) and imaging solutions related software and is by far the market leader in the domestic market and ...
More About: Private Equity , Private , Equity

New year greetings!
2008-01-01 04:58:00
Wish everyone a happy 2008! Was on an extended year end vacation and will now be resuming my regular blogging.
More About: New Year , Year

Sub prime ruminations (Part 1)
2007-11-27 11:52:00
For the past few days, I have been mulling over the fallouts and developments post the sub prime crisis in the US, and there are two strong thoughts that emerge - a)Have the global financial markets become too complex for their own good? and b)Is the US on the verge of losing its position of ...
More About: Part , Prime

Imminent slowdown?
2007-11-22 04:40:00
I’m in Hong Kong for a few weeks on work and things don’t seem very bright here (I mean on the business front).  The Hang Seng Index has had the second largest fall this year and all the pink papers and business channels don’t seem too optimistic either. Nobody’s uttering the “R” word yet, but ...

On Google?s alliance strategies
2007-11-14 08:04:00
Techville’s headlines in the recent past have been hogged by the two big initiatives launched by Google viz. Open Social and Android .  Was reading this piece on MARS which likened Google’s Android to Microsoft’s Windows strategy. The gist of this article as also many others that have appeared elsewhere is that by opening up the social net and ...
More About: Strategies , Alliance

HSBC Private Equity invests in Trivitron
2007-11-05 04:48:00
Announcing our first invetsment here since I joined. We have invested $11 million in Trivitron, a leading medical equipment manufacturer and distributor based in Chennai. Our co-investor in Trivitron is ePlanet Ventures, a leading US based VC (with strong operations in Asia as well) boasting of such blockbuster investments as Skype, Baidu and Focus Media. ...
More About: Private Equity , Private , Equity

Is the current VC model ripe for disruption?
2007-10-19 09:20:00
Have been irregular for the past few days in posting, mainly on account of a heightened deal activity here. Expect things to clear up in a couple of weeks and resume regular blogging. Meanwhile, happened to visit the site of a SV based early stage investor - First Round Capital. Their investment thesis had an ...
More About: Venture Capital , Current , Model

A corporate finance conundrum (Part 2)
2007-10-01 09:20:00
The valuation question posed in my last post had three responses. Two readers suggested that the cash needs to be added back and one said that it needs to be left alone. And now for the right answer - neither is correct. It in fact needs to be subtracted. Let me “prove” that to you.
More About: Finance , Corporate , Part , Fina , Corporate Finance

A corporate finance conundrum
2007-09-24 09:52:00
Ok, so you think you are a finance pro. Then answer this valuation puzzle - Suppose you are trying to value a firm. You do a DCF for the Free Cashflows to the Firm (FCFF), which means, you leave out any financing charges such as interest payments. So, at the end of the exercise you arrive ...
More About: Finance , Corporate , Fina , Corporate Finance

Imminent slowdown - Blame the ?YouTube effect?
2007-09-19 12:19:00
It appears that after nearly 3-4 years of frenetic activity, VCs, entrepreneurs and technologists are entering a phase of self reflection. Ref. - Fred Wilson’s piece, Read Write Web et al. The dampening impact of the sub prime crisis is already too well documented for further elaboration. The big question now is whether and to ...
More About: Youtube , Effect , Blame , Lame

LBOs demystified
2007-09-07 09:44:00
Given all the publicity (both positive and negative) that PE firms are getting these days in the media, some of the industry related vocabulary seems to be coming into the fold of common parlance. One such term that seems to have successfully garnered some popular attention (in India), thanks to the likes of Tata (Corus) ...
More About: Myst

Best places in the world to do business in the wired world
2007-08-30 10:01:00
Be surprised (like I was) to see what tops this list of cities do business in the wired world according to Business 2.0. Click below. Best tech cities according to Business 2.0
More About: World , Places , The World , Wired

Media measurement ? In a state of perennial mess
2007-08-27 08:12:00
?Lies, damn lies and statistics? is an expression that aptly fits the media measurement industry across the board cutting across all media types. Right from the oldest media form - print to the newest ? internet and all the intermediate ones (television, outdoor etc), procuring precise statistics for audience related information has been as fruitful ...
More About: Media , State , Mess

Out of bloffice
2007-08-20 16:28:00
Have been having a hectic travel and work schedule last few days and should be back shortly.

Behavioral targeting - hotting up
2007-08-14 12:40:00
I notice that not too many people talk much about Hotmail these days. It appears that given the plethora of “Ajax based” and other popular email services such as Gmail and Yahoo! mail, Hotmail seems to have taken a backseat. Yet, I would rate Hotmail as one of the epoch making events in the evolution ...
More About: Oral , Targeting

TV content distribution industry in India in a state of flux
2007-08-10 12:17:00
With great change comes great opportunity. And the India n TV content distribution industry today, with its heady mix of gargantuan size, steep growth and a rapidly changing dynamic presents just that. Before we dive into the giant soap opera that is the television industry in India, lets just look at a few facts that establish ...
More About: Industry , Distribution , Content , State

Sky Click- Finally a mashup that actually ?rings?
2007-08-07 06:29:00
“Web 2.0″ is a phrase that I’m beginning to loathe using these days. It is typical of most concepts in technology. At first, it is catchy and trendy to get hooked on to and talk about. Then, gradually from there, it goes to becoming mainstream to mundane and finally it gets so abused and its ...
More About: Click , Rings , Finally , Mashup , Fina

Loudcloud and Exodus - A tale of two companies
2007-07-31 09:00:00
Those who have been following Marc Andreessen’s blog (which btw is a must read for those interested in tech and entrepreneurship) would have read about the recent acquisition of his company Opsware by HP for $1.6 bn. Opsware is actually a reincarnation of an earlier company, Loudcloud, which went bankrupt during the dot com bust. ...
More About: Companies , Tale , Compa , Exodus

An economist?s viewpoint of the Indian IT industry
2007-07-28 05:15:00
The preceding posts on Infy have set a good base for me to discuss something that I had intended to, which is the concept of “value creation” in a capitalistic system. We often come across this phrase “value chain”, a common platitude that we get to hear all the time being - “we are trying ...
More About: Economist , Industry , Indian , Viewpoint , Econ

Infy - Time to ?grow up? (Part II)
2007-07-27 10:12:00
My earlier post on this topic (where I had suggested that Infy should take the lead in jacking up offshore billing rates) had evoked a lot of discussion, including one of the readers, who had some adverse remarks on it suggesting that mine was the “worst analysis” of Infy’s results. I had responded by saying that ...
More About: Time , Part , Grow

11 immutable laws of internet branding, now 9?
2007-07-25 11:20:00
I recently picked up a book at an airport bookstore called “The 11 Immutable Laws of Intern et Branding ”. Completed it over a couple of flights. The part interesting and part disappointing aspect of the book, as it turned out was that this was a pretty old edition. From the pre-Google era, so to speak. So, ...