What Can Indian Startups Learn From The Facebook Acquisition That Didn’t Happen

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

What Can Indian Startups Learn From The Facebook Acquisition That Didn’t Happen

Posted 13 hours ago by Pankaj Mishra (@pankajontech)

Little Eye Labs was not the only acquisition Facebook was chasing in India last year. Salorix, a social media analytics startup that had raised $3.5 million in Series A from Inventus Capital Partners and Nexus Venture Partners in November 2011, was approached by Facebook in October last year. But by December, the acquisition talks were stalled. Read more of this post

Filed under TMT Trends

More Taiwanese use Facebook per capita than anywhere else in world

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

More Taiwanese use Facebook per capita than anywhere else in world

CNA
March 1, 2014, 12:01 am TWN

TAIPEI — Facebook Inc.’s penetration rate in Taiwan is higher than in any other market in the world, an executive of the world’s largest social network said Thursday. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends, TMT Trends

Achieving leadership greatness means leveraging luck and navigating between extremes, says INSEAD Professor of Entrepreneurship Morten Hansen

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

INSEAD’s Global Thought Leaders: Morten Hansen

Feb 28, 2014

Achieving leadership greatness means leveraging luck and navigating between extremes, says INSEAD Professor of Entrepreneurship Morten Hansen in an interview with INSEAD Knowledge. The transcript is below

Read more of this post

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Warren Buffett’s annual letter: What investors will be looking for

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

Warren Buffett’s annual letter: What investors will be looking for

Josh Funk, Associated Press | February 28, 2014 5:29 AM ET
OMAHA, Neb. — Berkshire Hathaway Inc. investors will be looking for details of how the conglomerate performed and the best advice CEO Warren Buffett has to offer in his annual letter this Saturday. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

WhatsApp and the Wild, Weird, Wacky World of Investing

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

WhatsApp and the Wild, Weird, Wacky World of Investing

26 FEB 2014 – VITALIY KATSENELSON

Recently, in a conversation with another investor, I referred to a company’s management as being “extremely honest.” I was corrected, that honesty is binary and cannot be described with an adjective — a person is either honest or not. Read more of this post

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China Currency Plunges Most In Over 5 Years, Biggest Weekly Loss Ever: Yuan Carry Traders Crushed

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

China Currency Plunges Most In Over 5 Years, Biggest Weekly Loss Ever: Yuan Carry Traders Crushed

Tyler Durden on 02/27/2014 23:18 -0500

And just like that the Chinese yuan devaluation has shifted away from the merely “orderly.”

In the past few hours of trading, China, which as we reported two days ago has started intervening aggressively in the Yuan market (for the reasons why, read this), has seen its currency crash by nearly 0.9%, which may not seem like much, but is in fact the largest drop since December of 2008, and at last check was trading at around 6.18, even as the PBOC fixed the CNY reference rate 0.02% higher from the last official close to 6.1214, erasing pivot support point at 6.1346 and 6.1408.  Naturally this means that the obverse, the CNYUSD, has crashed to as low as 0.1620. Should this move sustain without reverting, this will be the biggest weekly loss ever! Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

Loss-saddled Sony to sell its Tokyo birthplace

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

Updated: Friday February 28, 2014 MYT 5:32:46 PM

Loss-saddled Sony to sell its Tokyo birthplace

TOKYO: Sony will sell properties at a prestigious Tokyo site where it had its headquarters for six decades, as the once world-beating firm struggles to improve its bottom line, reports said Friday. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

China falls out of love with cash

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

February 28, 2014 4:22 am

China falls out of love with cash

By Patti Waldmeir and Simon Rabinovitch in Shanghai

image001-14

China is rapidly ditching the centuries-old habit of paying its bills with trunkloads of cash, and making the shift to virtual forms of payment faster than any other country on earth. Read more of this post

Filed under Innovation

WhatsApp and Tesla set the scene for soaring valuations; Danger that valuations will touch off a wider euphoria

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

February 27, 2014 6:11 pm

WhatsApp and Tesla set the scene for soaring valuations

By Richard Waters

Danger that valuations will touch off a wider euphoria

It is often a sign of a bubble when analysts and commentators rush to explain away each new upward step in valuations – and then come up with expansive arguments to justify why prices should be even higher. Read more of this post

Filed under TMT Trends

Higher Ed’s Illusions: Academics think their students are prepared for the workforce

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

Higher Ed’s Illusions

Academics think their students are prepared for the workforce.

Feb. 27, 2014 7:15 p.m. ET

For years, polling data has shown that Americans hold the U.S. Congress in low esteem, with the Members’ approval often sinking into the teens. So guess which American institution is on course to join them? It’s our colleges and universities. Congress at least admits it’s doing a poor job. The colleges don’t. Read more of this post

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Missing at Mobile World Congress: Innovation

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

Missing at Mobile World Congress: Innovation

This Year’s Show Offered Another Cascade of Glass-Slab Devices That Varied in Size and, Maybe, Color

SAM SCHECHNER

Feb. 27, 2014 3:25 p.m. ET

Startups have taken over the old home of Mobile World Congress. Christopher Pommerening, a venture capitalist and organizer of the ‘Four Years From Now’ project, explains why he wants to get mobile startups and investors together in a single place. Read more of this post

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For Some Retailers, Less Red Is New Black

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

For Some Retailers, Less Red Is New Black

Penney, Sears Reported More Losses Last Year, but Results Weren’t as Bad as Some Feared

DREW FITZGERALD and SUZANNE KAPNER

Feb. 27, 2014 7:19 p.m. ET

For some of the country’s weakest retailers, less red is the new black. Read more of this post

Filed under Innovation

Baidu’s Search for Elusive Profit Growth

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

Baidu’s Search for Elusive Profit Growth

AARON BACK

Updated Feb. 27, 2014 11:41 a.m. ET

China’s online-search behemoth Baidu BIDU +3.48% is doing what it must to stay competitive. But in a theme Chinese Internet investors should get used to, profit growth isn’t going to be as bubbly as previously hoped.

image001-13

That was the company’s message to investors Thursday. Revenue surged by 50% from a year earlier in the fourth quarter while profits were flat, as expected. But in a conference call with analysts, Baidu Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Li dropped a bombshell, saying the company doesn’t expect any increase in profit this year as it continues to invest. Pity the analysts, who according to FactSet had optimistically forecast a 31% rise in 2014 net profit. Now they are asking where the money will be spent. Read more of this post

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Copycat Business Model Generates Genuine Global Success for Start-Up Incubator

March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

Copycat Business Model Generates Genuine Global Success for Start-Up Incubator

By MARK SCOTTFEB. 27, 2014

BERLIN — For Linio, think Amazon for Mexicans. For Zalora, think Zappos for Malaysians. For Easy Taxi, think Uber for Nigerians.

And for all of them, think Rocket Internet, a budding tech empire here in Germany’s capital. Read more of this post

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Asset theft is top economic crime in China

March 3, 2014 Leave a comment

Asset theft is top economic crime in China

Friday, February 28, 2014 – 10:07

China Daily/Asia News Network

CHINA – China’s economic crime rate may be lower than that of the world, but many companies in the Chinese mainland are extremely concerned about bribery, corruption and procurement fraud, according to a PwC survey released on Thursday. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

China’s Leaders Take Aim at Internet Security

March 3, 2014 Leave a comment

China’s Leaders Take Aim at Internet Security

Xi, Other Top Communist Party Officials to Helm New Committee

PAUL MOZUR

Updated Feb. 27, 2014 11:04 a.m. ET

BEIJING—China’s government appears to be tightening its grip on online discourse with the formation of an Internet-security committee led by top Communist Party officials. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends, TMT Trends

3D Systems Prints Everything But Money

March 3, 2014 Leave a comment

3D Systems Prints Everything But Money

SPENCER JAKAB

Updated Feb. 27, 2014 4:33 p.m. ET

It is appropriate that a movie starring molded blocks of polymer, “The Lego Movie,” is tearing up the box office. Three-dimensional printing, a technology that can turn plastic and other materials into almost anything, has been a runaway hit on Wall Street recently. Read more of this post

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Pimco’s Gross Defends Competitive Culture

March 3, 2014 Leave a comment

Pimco’s Gross Defends Competitive Culture

Allianz is ‘Very Happy’ with Pimco’s New Management Structure

GREGORY ZUCKERMAN and KIRSTEN GRIND

Feb. 27, 2014 8:20 p.m. ET

Bill Gross isn’t changing his style—and his bosses say they are fine with that.

The co-founder of bond behemoth Pacific Investment Management Co. on Thursday defended its competitive culture, saying in an interview that the trading floor can’t thrive on “sweet talking” alone but that the firm is still a family of sorts. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

South Korea’s Growth Model; Seoul pushes domestic deregulation over export promotion

March 3, 2014 Leave a comment

South Korea’s Growth Model

Seoul pushes domestic deregulation over export promotion.

Updated Feb. 27, 2014 6:01 p.m. ET

Japan’s Abenomics may be struggling, but at least economic reform isn’t dead in Asia. Witness South Korea, where President Park Geun-hye is proposing a reform package that could be a model for the region and many other parts of the world. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

Lego Looks to Build in China; Danish Toy Maker Looks to Replicate Success Enjoyed in West

March 3, 2014 Leave a comment

Lego Looks to Build in China

Danish Toy Maker Looks to Replicate Success Enjoyed in West

NICLAS ROLANDER

Feb. 27, 2014 5:34 a.m. ET

Lego A/S, pressured by stagnant toy demand in mature markets, is sharpening its focus on emerging economies, where hundreds of millions of potential customers have yet to buy the company’s interlocking bricks. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

Is China Set For A Japan-Style Lost-Decade?

March 3, 2014 Leave a comment

Is China Set For A Japan-Style Lost-Decade?

Tyler Durden on 02/26/2014 22:00 -0500

“The extent of unproductive investment in China today is much greater than was the case for Japan at a comparable phase of development,” warns Deutsche’s EM strategist John-Paul Smith, and one glance at the chart below suggests China is tracing an ominous path towards the same “lost-decade” that un-inspired Japan since the mid-80s. While the PBOC is less interested in goosing its own stock market (since ownership is so low), Chinese stocks (down 60% from 2007 highs) “seem to be saying that there is a significant risk of a major slowdown.” Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

Telcos ‘may cut network investments’ if they can’t ride on app messaging wave

March 3, 2014 Leave a comment

Telcos ‘may cut network investments’ if they can’t ride on app messaging wave

SINGAPORE — Telcos and over-the-top (OTT) providers such as messaging giant WhatsApp need to work out their relationship to avoid the risk of the former cutting back on network investments as they have not found a way to monetise the growing popularity of OTT services, analysts said, following the SingTel Chief Executive’s call to allow telcos to charge OTT providers for the use of their network.

BY TAN WEIZHEN –

FEBRUARY 28

SINGAPORE — Telcos and over-the-top (OTT) providers such as messaging giant WhatsApp need to work out their relationship to avoid the risk of the former cutting back on network investments as they have not found a way to monetise the growing popularity of OTT services, analysts said, following the SingTel Chief Executive’s call to allow telcos to charge OTT providers for the use of their network. Read more of this post

Filed under TMT Trends

One in Three Audits Fail, PCAOB Chief Auditor Says

March 3, 2014 Leave a comment

January 24, 2014, 3:12 PM ET

One in Three Audits Fail, PCAOB Chief Auditor Says

By EMILY CHASAN

Senior Editor

More than one in three audits inspected by the U.S. government’s audit watchdog were so deficient the auditors shouldn’t have signed off, an official said this week. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

PepsiCo re-enters ‘Magic Kingdom’ with Shanghai Disney deal

March 3, 2014 Leave a comment

PepsiCo re-enters ‘Magic Kingdom’ with Shanghai Disney deal

8:04am EST

By Adam Jourdan

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – PepsiCo Inc (PEP.N: Quote, Profile,Research, Stock Buzz) has signed a deal to supply beverages to Walt Disney Co’s (DIS.N: Quote, Profile,Research, Stock Buzz) first China resort, breaking The Coca-Cola Co’s (KO.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) quarter century monopoly over beverage supply to the U.S. theme park operator. Read more of this post

Filed under Innovation

Berkshire in advanced talks to buy H&F’s Catalina Marketing which has the world’s largest shopper history database; EBITDA $230m

March 3, 2014 Leave a comment

Berkshire in advanced talks to buy H&F’s Catalina Marketing – sources

6:01pm EST

By Soyoung Kim and Greg Roumeliotis

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Private equity firm Berkshire Partners LLC is in the late stage of negotiations to buy Catalina Marketing Corp from Hellman & Friedman LLC, according to people familiar with the matter, in a deal expected to be worth more than $2 billion. Read more of this post

Filed under TMT Trends

‘Get the strategy and the team right’: An interview with the CEO of Henkel; Kasper Rorsted discusses the company’s growth plans, what it takes to hire good people, and how he fosters dialogue with customers and employees

March 3, 2014 Leave a comment

‘Get the strategy and the team right’: An interview with the CEO of Henkel

Kasper Rorsted, head of the global manufacturer since 2008, discusses the company’s growth plans, what it takes to hire good people, and how he fosters dialogue with customers and employees.

February 2014 | byKlaus Behrenbeck

As consumer companies continue to expand their global presence, they face a host of formidable challenges: among them, staying close to the consumer, finding and attracting local talent, and managing an increasingly complex and far-flung organization. These challenges are familiar to Kasper Rorsted, who in April 2008 was named CEO of Henkel, the Düsseldorf-based manufacturer of home- and personal-care products and adhesive technologies. Henkel’s roster of brands includes Persil detergent, Dial soap, Fa deodorant, and Loctite glue. In recent years, the 137-year-old company has fared well—in large part by dramatically boosting its presence in emerging markets, which today account for 45 percent of its global revenues of €16.5 billion. Read more of this post

Filed under Life

How China Snares Tigers, Swats Flies on Path to Reform

March 3, 2014 Leave a comment

Feb 27, 2014

How China Snares Tigers, Swats Flies on Path to Reform

China’s Communist Party chief Xi Jinping has spent much of his first year in office cracking down on “tigers and flies” in an anticorruption drive just as he pushes ahead with some serious economic reforms. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

China banks lobby to cap online financial product yields

March 3, 2014 Leave a comment

China banks lobby to cap online financial product yields – sources

4:35am EST

* Interbank deposits currently not subject to rate cap

* Banks want online products treated as retail deposits

* Huge outflow of bank deposits as savers move online

* PBOC would have to approve regulatory change

By Heng Xie and Gabriel Wildau

BEIJING/SHANGHAI, Feb 27 (Reuters) – The China Banking Association is lobbying regulators to cap the yields on online money market funds, two bankers told Reuters on Thursday, in the boldest effort yet by banks to answer the threat from online financial products. Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

So Who Stops a Run on Yu E Bao Accounts? Regulatory responsibility over the wildly popular e-investment product has never been established, an oversight that raises many questions

March 3, 2014 Leave a comment

02.27.2014 18:51

Closer Look: So Who Stops a Run on Yu E Bao Accounts?

Regulatory responsibility over the wildly popular e-investment product has never been established, an oversight that raises many questions Read more of this post

Filed under Macro Trends

How to Compete Smarter

March 3, 2014 Leave a comment

Published: February 14, 2014

How to Compete Smarter

Roger Martin, coauthor of Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works, introduces a lesson on the proper foundation for core competencies from Compete Smarter, Not Harder: A Process for Developing the Right Priorities through Strategic Thinking, by William Putsis. Read more of this post

Filed under Life

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