Mittal’s back, Wipro goes big, Google kills cookies and other news
Business news and insights to jump start your day
“Don’t be intimidated by what you don’t know. That can be your greatest strength and ensure that you do things differently from everyone else.”
- Sara Blakely
Good morning! 😀
Before we sign off for the weekend, here’s your business news update for today:
World’s leading steelmakers coming to Odisha
Wipro makes its biggest acquisition to date
Google kills cookies
Let’s get started…
📈 How did the markets fare
BSE Sensex - 50,846.08 | -1.16% ⬇
NSE Nifty - 15,080.75 | -1.08% ⬇
10-Yr Bond Yield - 6.212% | -0.025 ⬇
S&P 500 - 3,768.47 | -1.34% ⬇
USD/INR - ₹ 72.83 | +0.17% ⬆
Shares of IRCTC, the catering and e-ticketing arm of Indian Railways, rose to an all-time high as sentiment in the travel industry improves with the roll-out of vaccines. The stock has gained nearly 35% in a month.
📰 What's happening around us
Corporate
Fourth time lucky? Billionaire steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal attempted to set up a greenfield project (from scratch instead of building on anything existing) in India three times earlier without success. But he hasn’t given up and is trying again, having signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Odisha government to set up a 12 million tonne integrated steel plant with an investment of Rs 50,000 crore.
This time, he will be trying to fulfil his dream through ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India (AM/NS), a partnership between two of the leading steelmakers in the world, which took over operations of Essar Steel in 2019 after it went into bankruptcy.
Despite having rich deposits of iron ore in the country, India has been a net importer of steel in many years over the past decade and the government has increasingly become more vocal about reducing reliance on imports and becoming more self-sufficient. Large projects such as these will definitely help us achieve that. Let’s just hope this proposed project will see the light of day.
Tech
India’s fourth-largest software exporter, Wipro is upping its game by making its biggest purchase to date. The Bengaluru-based company is acquiring London-based management and technology consultancy Capco for $1.45 billion. The acquisition will not only add $700 million to Wipro’s revenues, but will also strengthen the company’s BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) play thanks to Capco’s existing 30 large BFSI clients.
The purchase comes less than a year after the company controlled by billionaire Azim Premji hired Thierry Delaporte from Capgemini SE to help it regain ground it lost to rivals such as HCL Technologies. Under Delaporte, Wipro made three acquisitions through 2020. It acquired leading Salesforce multi-cloud partner 4C; engineering services company Eximius Design; and Encore Theme Technologies, a specialist in providing cloud solutions in financial services.
Top IT services companies are increasingly acquiring smaller companies as a strategy to rapidly grow their digital business, which has seen high demand during the pandemic. So far, the biggest acquisition by any Indian IT firm has been the $1.8 billion deal by HCL Technologies to buy a slew of IBM software products in 2019.
Tech
Google is rewriting the rules of online advertising. After Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox, Google is phasing out third-party cookies from its web browser Chrome.
Cookies are small snippets of code used to track users between websites and display more relevant ads. Third-party cookies are the reason why the shoes you looked at a few weeks ago are still stalking you around the web.
So, does no more third-party cookies mean more privacy? Not really. Google is proposing a new approach called Federated Learning of Cohorts or FLoC which aims to track groups of people with similar interests, instead of individuals. It means the targeting will simply shift to a more anonymous and less creepy way.
The shift away from cookies has been prompted by years of tightening regulation and increased consumer awareness. But, what seems like a win for privacy may actually only serve to tighten Google’s grip on the advertising industry as critics and regulators say the move risks putting smaller advertising firms out of business.
🎯 News Bites
Despite the ultra-low interest rates prevailing in the economy, 60 million subscribers of Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) will retain the annual interest rate of 8.5% for FY21. Healthy returns on the retirement fund body’s equity investments helped it to maintain the rate.
We’ve got some grim news…..petrol and diesel are set to become even more expensive. Unless of course the government steps in and reduces tax. The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies agreed to keep supply in check, sending global crude oil prices soaring.
It seems like the lure of SPACs is strong even among Indian companies. As per a Bloomberg report, Walmart-owned Flipkart is considering listing in the US through the SPAC route. The e-tailer is said to be seeking a $35 billion valuation.
Renewing your driver’s license will no longer require those long waits at the Regional Transport Office (RTO) as the government has enabled contactless service based on Aadhar authentication.
Square, the fintech company founded by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has purchased a majority stake in rapper Jay Z’s Tidal for $297 million. Tidal is a music streaming service known for its high fidelity sound.
WhatsApp has finally launched voice and video calling from the desktop. Now you can pretend you’re working on your computer while chatting away with your friends. For what it’s worth, they say it’s end-to-end encrypted.
Weekend Recommendation
For those who missed the last week’s recommendation, here’s an article on how a 10-second video clip sold for $6.6 million.
That's it for this week. See you on Monday!
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