Saturday, July 22, 2006
Hyderabad Business News July 22nd,2006
Satyam posts 86% jump in net profit
Hyderabad, July 21: Satyam Computer Services Ltd, a software services exporter, posted a net profit of Rs 354.12 crores in the first quarter of 2006-07, up 86.18 per cent year-on-year, while its revenues from software services stood at Rs 1,443 crores, an increase of 36.3 per cent year-on-year. The revenue was higher than the guidance that stood between Rs 1,359 crores and Rs 1,366 crores.
Satyam chairman B. Ramalinga Raju told reporters that the company was revising its full-year revenue guidance for 2006-07 to be between Rs 6,190 crores to Rs 6,290 crores, against the earlier guidance of Rs 6,000 crores to Rs 6,100 crores. EPS guidance for the year had also been revised to Rs 38.90 to Rs 39.50, up from the earlier guidance of Rs 36 to Rs 36.60.
“The growth continues to be broad-based across verticals and service offerings. Offshore contribution continued to increase in the first quarter,” Mr Raju said. Offshoring had grown by four per cent and accounted for 47 per cent of Satyam’s revenues during the quarter, he said. Mr Raju said Satyam had added 1,123 workers during the quarter, taking the total worker strength to 27,634.
He said that the sequential increase of $10-million customers had increased from 27 to 22. “The number of customers with an annualised billing exceeding $5 million has also increased from 46 to 51,” he said. Satyam CFO Srinivas Vadlamani said the company had gained Rs 45 crores through the rate movement in the forex market. The company expects its higher-than-industry attrition rate to come down by about two per cent, following a pay hike for its workers.
Satyam’s BPO subsidiary, Nipuna, posted a net loss of Rs 6.15 crores on revenues of Rs 36.7 crores, and added 240 employees during the first quarter. Its revenue guidance for 2006-07 is $36 million. The London-based Citisoft plc, a company which Satyam acquired last year, posted a loss of $8 million on revenues of $3.66 million. Satyam acquired the balance of 25 per cent from Citisoft’s promoters for Rs 27.47 crores on June 29.
Maruti to continue focus on small cars
Chennai/Hyderabad, July 21: Despite the premium and sedan segments of India’s automobile sector hogging the limelight lately with a series of new launches, senior executives of home-grown auto giant Maruti Udyog Ltd in Hyderabad and Chennai said the focus for the company would remain the small car segment for years to come.
Talking to the media at the launch of the new-look WagonR and WagonR Duo in Chennai, Mr Jagdish Khattar, managing director, MUL, said, “The Nissan alliance is the first indication on the hub for overseas needs and for several more years, MUL’s focus would remain on 1.3 to 1.5 litre cars.”
Maruti’s cars such as M800, Zen (for which the new model will be launched later this year), WagonR and Swift dominate the small-car and the A2 segment, while Esteem and Baleno are the premium numberplates.
At the Hyderabad launch, Maruti’s general manager (marketing) Mayank Pareek said that the sales growth would primarily be driven by the A2 segment. Asked if Maruti lacked focus in the sedan segment with sales falling for Baleno, Mr Pareek said, “Although the sales of Baleno and Esteem might have fallen on a monthly basis due to seasonal factors, the two models have grown on a yearly basis.”
For Maruti, whose exports dipped in 2005 due to certain capacity constraints, the key this year was to expand its reach in the new “right-hand drive” countries. “South and East Asian countries, East Africa and Latin America are emerging as promising export markets for Maruti,” Mr S. Oishi, director (marketing and sales), said.
Further, Maruti also plans to launch a diesel car with its own engine by the end of this year. “Definitely it will not be a very small car,” said Mr Khattar. On the proposed Rs 1 lakh car from the Tatas, Mr Khattar noted, “It is a major step to expand the car market in India and it will help the company too.”’
He, however, said that Maruti would not come out that with any cheap version car in the market. “We would like to stick to the car we are producing at the lower end,” he added.On the small car market in the country, Mr Khattar told reporters that India was ranked third after Japan and Brazil in the small car segment in the world.
Salgame quits Cisco India
Hyderabad, July 21: Cisco Systems, a networking company for the Internet, said on Friday that Mr Rangnath “Rangu” Salgame will leave his position as president of Cisco Systems, India and Saarc.
Cisco Systems India and Saarc spokesman Varghese M. Thomas said that Mr David Caspari, Cisco’s vice-president of service provider operations, Asia-Pacific, after a transition process, will become the acting president of Cisco India, while a search for a permanent replacement for Mr Salgame is being conducted.
Mr Caspari will continue to report to Mr Owen Chan, Cisco’s president of the Asia-Pacific operations. Mr Thomas declined to comment when asked the reasons for Mr Salgame’s exit after over three years in the job, during which Cisco Systems saw a dramatic growth in the Indian subcontinent. He also declined to comment on whether Mr Salgame had resigned or had been fired. Voice&Data had estimated that Cisco Systems India had posted revenues of over Rs 2,700 crores in 2004-05.
Tata Steel’s Q1 net rises 3%
Hyderabad, July 21: Tata Steel Ltd on Friday posted an increase of 3.17 per cent in net profit at Rs 953.41 crores for the quarter ended June 30, as compared to Rs 924.11 crores for the same quarter last year.
The total income (net of excise) increased 11.32 per cent to Rs 3,993.78 crores for the first quarter ended June 30 from Rs 3,587.39 crores a year ago, a company statement said. The group posted a profit after minority interest and share of profits of associates of Rs 1,019.18 crores for the quarter ended June 30, as compared to Rs 985.32 crores for the same quarter in 2005-06, it added.
The total income (net of excise) of the group increased to Rs 5,843.28 crores for the first quarter ended June 30 from Rs 4,916.45 crores a year ago. Meanwhile, in a move to shield itself from takeovers, Tata Sons, the parent company of Tata Steel, has raised its stake in the company to 23.82 per cent by picking up a 3.72 per cent stake in the steelmaker.
Now, get ‘snazzy’ systems minus the wires
IT Today
Check this out — you have a snazzy home entertainment, which cost you an arm and a leg to buy, but the whole bunch of wires and cables sticking out the back of the system spoils the look of your living room. Help may be at hand with Pegasus Wireless Corporation claiming to have developed a solution that eliminates the need for those wires and cables.
Wirelesscables, acco-rding to Pegasus, is a device no larger than a deck of cards that will wirelessly connect all of the components of the home entertainment system and stream surround sound audio and high-definition video in real time to any display in the home. The gizmo is claimed to be a “plug-n-play” device that does not require any installation or configuration for it to communicate with all components of the home entertainment system.
There’s more. Wirelesscables is completely compatible with any wireless network that already exists in the home, which simplifies the often complicated and frustrating task of controlling the system.“By replacing the unsightly mess of wires and cables from behind the home entertainment system with a simple device that will transmit high definition signals from one display to another in the home, this innovation opens the door for options within the retail market,” says Jasper Knabb, president of Pegasus Wireless.
Streaming music
While on home entertainment, So-ny Electronics has developed a wireless streaming music player and 2.1 channel home theatre system. The CPF-IX001 wireless streaming music player can be networked with a PC and a wireless 802.11 b/g access point for direct playback of music stored on a hard drive.
Sony says that the CPF-IX001 wireless streaming music system, after loading the supplied M-crew software, just needs power, an 802.11 b/g access point and an Ethernet connection. It will automatically configure to a home network. “Once connected to the network, the device creates its own unique Internet Protocol (IP) address. Consequently, if multiple players are stationed around the house, they can simultaneously stream music from the networked PC wirelessly,” it says.
“The system automatically searches for music files when connected to a network for simple content navigation by disc, artist and genre. The player also provides play list creation that can be accessed via remote control.” The wireless streaming music player is Sony’s first to use a power line transmission technology. The process provides power to both the main unit and its subwoofer.
7 cities keen on Metro rail, says Sreedharan
Hyderabad, July 21: After the resounding success of Delhi Metro, as many as seven cities have sought assistance of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation in implementing similar projects to be set up at an expenditure of Rs 31,000 crore.
“As many as seven cities are planning metro rail systems and all the project reports are being prepared by the DMRC,” E. Sreedharan, MD, DMRC said at a CII seminar on Mass Rapid Transit System in here. After the success of Delhi’s Metro System, 26 cities in the country are at various stages of planning and implementing the Metro system.
Giving details about the projects, Mr Sreedharan said that the 63 kilometre long Mumbai line will cost Rs 10,600 crore while Bangalore’s two lines covering 32 km would cost Rs 3,970 crore.
“The Hyderabad Metro will have three lines covering 60 km implemented at a cost of Rs 5,100 crore and Ahmedabad metro be built at Rs 2,600 crore,” he said. He also said that Kolkata, which already has one line, will get a new 18.7 km line with a part of it running under the Hoogly river and will cost Rs 3,460 crore and the 5 km Chennai line is expected to cost Rs 5,100 crore.
Talking about the Delhi Metro, the DMRC Chief said the second phase of the Delhi Metro will have a 40 km connecting line between the railway station and the new airport. “This will reduce the travel time to 15 minutes and this line will be implemented before the Commonwealth Games commence in Delhi.”
Google net up on search advertising
Google’s profits more than doubled in the second quarter, as the company continued to increase its share of the lucrative search advertising market. The company, which announced results on Thursday, exceeded analysts’ expectations for both sales and profit. That is in contrast to Yahoo, which disappointed Wall Street Tuesday with lower-than-expected revenue from search-related advertising. Yahoo met profit expectations because it postponed some hiring and advertising spending.
In after-hours trading, shares of Google rose nearly 1 per cent, to $390.55. The stock has fallen this week in sympathy with Yahoo, which dropped 22 per cent on Wednesday. Shares of Yahoo rose 0.3 per cent on Thursday, to $25.27. Google, based in Mountain View, California, attributed its success to several areas in which Yahoo fell short. The company said it continued to develop technology that increases the advertising revenue it earns from each search, while Yahoo said its already delayed effort to build such technology would be another three months late.
Google also continued to expand the number of sites that display advertising it sells, while Yahoo is still absorbing the loss of its largest advertising client, MSN from Microsoft, which is selling its own advertising. “We did really, really well in a quarter that is seasonally slow,” said Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive. “Big companies as they get larger seem to slow down. We continue to innovate.” Google earned $721.1 million, or $2.33 a share in the quarter, compared with $342.8 million, or $1.19 a share, in the period a year ago.
Excluding charges related to stock-based compensation and a gain from the sale of its shares in Baidu, the Chinese Internet company, Google earned $2.49 a share. Analysts had expected the company to earn $2.22 on that basis. Google’s revenue was $2.46 billion, up 77 per cent. Excluding the payments it makes to companies like AOL, Google’s revenue was $1.67 billion, up 88 per cent.
Hyderabad, July 21: Satyam Computer Services Ltd, a software services exporter, posted a net profit of Rs 354.12 crores in the first quarter of 2006-07, up 86.18 per cent year-on-year, while its revenues from software services stood at Rs 1,443 crores, an increase of 36.3 per cent year-on-year. The revenue was higher than the guidance that stood between Rs 1,359 crores and Rs 1,366 crores.
Satyam chairman B. Ramalinga Raju told reporters that the company was revising its full-year revenue guidance for 2006-07 to be between Rs 6,190 crores to Rs 6,290 crores, against the earlier guidance of Rs 6,000 crores to Rs 6,100 crores. EPS guidance for the year had also been revised to Rs 38.90 to Rs 39.50, up from the earlier guidance of Rs 36 to Rs 36.60.
“The growth continues to be broad-based across verticals and service offerings. Offshore contribution continued to increase in the first quarter,” Mr Raju said. Offshoring had grown by four per cent and accounted for 47 per cent of Satyam’s revenues during the quarter, he said. Mr Raju said Satyam had added 1,123 workers during the quarter, taking the total worker strength to 27,634.
He said that the sequential increase of $10-million customers had increased from 27 to 22. “The number of customers with an annualised billing exceeding $5 million has also increased from 46 to 51,” he said. Satyam CFO Srinivas Vadlamani said the company had gained Rs 45 crores through the rate movement in the forex market. The company expects its higher-than-industry attrition rate to come down by about two per cent, following a pay hike for its workers.
Satyam’s BPO subsidiary, Nipuna, posted a net loss of Rs 6.15 crores on revenues of Rs 36.7 crores, and added 240 employees during the first quarter. Its revenue guidance for 2006-07 is $36 million. The London-based Citisoft plc, a company which Satyam acquired last year, posted a loss of $8 million on revenues of $3.66 million. Satyam acquired the balance of 25 per cent from Citisoft’s promoters for Rs 27.47 crores on June 29.
Maruti to continue focus on small cars
Chennai/Hyderabad, July 21: Despite the premium and sedan segments of India’s automobile sector hogging the limelight lately with a series of new launches, senior executives of home-grown auto giant Maruti Udyog Ltd in Hyderabad and Chennai said the focus for the company would remain the small car segment for years to come.
Talking to the media at the launch of the new-look WagonR and WagonR Duo in Chennai, Mr Jagdish Khattar, managing director, MUL, said, “The Nissan alliance is the first indication on the hub for overseas needs and for several more years, MUL’s focus would remain on 1.3 to 1.5 litre cars.”
Maruti’s cars such as M800, Zen (for which the new model will be launched later this year), WagonR and Swift dominate the small-car and the A2 segment, while Esteem and Baleno are the premium numberplates.
At the Hyderabad launch, Maruti’s general manager (marketing) Mayank Pareek said that the sales growth would primarily be driven by the A2 segment. Asked if Maruti lacked focus in the sedan segment with sales falling for Baleno, Mr Pareek said, “Although the sales of Baleno and Esteem might have fallen on a monthly basis due to seasonal factors, the two models have grown on a yearly basis.”
For Maruti, whose exports dipped in 2005 due to certain capacity constraints, the key this year was to expand its reach in the new “right-hand drive” countries. “South and East Asian countries, East Africa and Latin America are emerging as promising export markets for Maruti,” Mr S. Oishi, director (marketing and sales), said.
Further, Maruti also plans to launch a diesel car with its own engine by the end of this year. “Definitely it will not be a very small car,” said Mr Khattar. On the proposed Rs 1 lakh car from the Tatas, Mr Khattar noted, “It is a major step to expand the car market in India and it will help the company too.”’
He, however, said that Maruti would not come out that with any cheap version car in the market. “We would like to stick to the car we are producing at the lower end,” he added.On the small car market in the country, Mr Khattar told reporters that India was ranked third after Japan and Brazil in the small car segment in the world.
Salgame quits Cisco India
Hyderabad, July 21: Cisco Systems, a networking company for the Internet, said on Friday that Mr Rangnath “Rangu” Salgame will leave his position as president of Cisco Systems, India and Saarc.
Cisco Systems India and Saarc spokesman Varghese M. Thomas said that Mr David Caspari, Cisco’s vice-president of service provider operations, Asia-Pacific, after a transition process, will become the acting president of Cisco India, while a search for a permanent replacement for Mr Salgame is being conducted.
Mr Caspari will continue to report to Mr Owen Chan, Cisco’s president of the Asia-Pacific operations. Mr Thomas declined to comment when asked the reasons for Mr Salgame’s exit after over three years in the job, during which Cisco Systems saw a dramatic growth in the Indian subcontinent. He also declined to comment on whether Mr Salgame had resigned or had been fired. Voice&Data had estimated that Cisco Systems India had posted revenues of over Rs 2,700 crores in 2004-05.
Tata Steel’s Q1 net rises 3%
Hyderabad, July 21: Tata Steel Ltd on Friday posted an increase of 3.17 per cent in net profit at Rs 953.41 crores for the quarter ended June 30, as compared to Rs 924.11 crores for the same quarter last year.
The total income (net of excise) increased 11.32 per cent to Rs 3,993.78 crores for the first quarter ended June 30 from Rs 3,587.39 crores a year ago, a company statement said. The group posted a profit after minority interest and share of profits of associates of Rs 1,019.18 crores for the quarter ended June 30, as compared to Rs 985.32 crores for the same quarter in 2005-06, it added.
The total income (net of excise) of the group increased to Rs 5,843.28 crores for the first quarter ended June 30 from Rs 4,916.45 crores a year ago. Meanwhile, in a move to shield itself from takeovers, Tata Sons, the parent company of Tata Steel, has raised its stake in the company to 23.82 per cent by picking up a 3.72 per cent stake in the steelmaker.
Now, get ‘snazzy’ systems minus the wires
IT Today
Check this out — you have a snazzy home entertainment, which cost you an arm and a leg to buy, but the whole bunch of wires and cables sticking out the back of the system spoils the look of your living room. Help may be at hand with Pegasus Wireless Corporation claiming to have developed a solution that eliminates the need for those wires and cables.
Wirelesscables, acco-rding to Pegasus, is a device no larger than a deck of cards that will wirelessly connect all of the components of the home entertainment system and stream surround sound audio and high-definition video in real time to any display in the home. The gizmo is claimed to be a “plug-n-play” device that does not require any installation or configuration for it to communicate with all components of the home entertainment system.
There’s more. Wirelesscables is completely compatible with any wireless network that already exists in the home, which simplifies the often complicated and frustrating task of controlling the system.“By replacing the unsightly mess of wires and cables from behind the home entertainment system with a simple device that will transmit high definition signals from one display to another in the home, this innovation opens the door for options within the retail market,” says Jasper Knabb, president of Pegasus Wireless.
Streaming music
While on home entertainment, So-ny Electronics has developed a wireless streaming music player and 2.1 channel home theatre system. The CPF-IX001 wireless streaming music player can be networked with a PC and a wireless 802.11 b/g access point for direct playback of music stored on a hard drive.
Sony says that the CPF-IX001 wireless streaming music system, after loading the supplied M-crew software, just needs power, an 802.11 b/g access point and an Ethernet connection. It will automatically configure to a home network. “Once connected to the network, the device creates its own unique Internet Protocol (IP) address. Consequently, if multiple players are stationed around the house, they can simultaneously stream music from the networked PC wirelessly,” it says.
“The system automatically searches for music files when connected to a network for simple content navigation by disc, artist and genre. The player also provides play list creation that can be accessed via remote control.” The wireless streaming music player is Sony’s first to use a power line transmission technology. The process provides power to both the main unit and its subwoofer.
7 cities keen on Metro rail, says Sreedharan
Hyderabad, July 21: After the resounding success of Delhi Metro, as many as seven cities have sought assistance of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation in implementing similar projects to be set up at an expenditure of Rs 31,000 crore.
“As many as seven cities are planning metro rail systems and all the project reports are being prepared by the DMRC,” E. Sreedharan, MD, DMRC said at a CII seminar on Mass Rapid Transit System in here. After the success of Delhi’s Metro System, 26 cities in the country are at various stages of planning and implementing the Metro system.
Giving details about the projects, Mr Sreedharan said that the 63 kilometre long Mumbai line will cost Rs 10,600 crore while Bangalore’s two lines covering 32 km would cost Rs 3,970 crore.
“The Hyderabad Metro will have three lines covering 60 km implemented at a cost of Rs 5,100 crore and Ahmedabad metro be built at Rs 2,600 crore,” he said. He also said that Kolkata, which already has one line, will get a new 18.7 km line with a part of it running under the Hoogly river and will cost Rs 3,460 crore and the 5 km Chennai line is expected to cost Rs 5,100 crore.
Talking about the Delhi Metro, the DMRC Chief said the second phase of the Delhi Metro will have a 40 km connecting line between the railway station and the new airport. “This will reduce the travel time to 15 minutes and this line will be implemented before the Commonwealth Games commence in Delhi.”
Google net up on search advertising
Google’s profits more than doubled in the second quarter, as the company continued to increase its share of the lucrative search advertising market. The company, which announced results on Thursday, exceeded analysts’ expectations for both sales and profit. That is in contrast to Yahoo, which disappointed Wall Street Tuesday with lower-than-expected revenue from search-related advertising. Yahoo met profit expectations because it postponed some hiring and advertising spending.
In after-hours trading, shares of Google rose nearly 1 per cent, to $390.55. The stock has fallen this week in sympathy with Yahoo, which dropped 22 per cent on Wednesday. Shares of Yahoo rose 0.3 per cent on Thursday, to $25.27. Google, based in Mountain View, California, attributed its success to several areas in which Yahoo fell short. The company said it continued to develop technology that increases the advertising revenue it earns from each search, while Yahoo said its already delayed effort to build such technology would be another three months late.
Google also continued to expand the number of sites that display advertising it sells, while Yahoo is still absorbing the loss of its largest advertising client, MSN from Microsoft, which is selling its own advertising. “We did really, really well in a quarter that is seasonally slow,” said Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive. “Big companies as they get larger seem to slow down. We continue to innovate.” Google earned $721.1 million, or $2.33 a share in the quarter, compared with $342.8 million, or $1.19 a share, in the period a year ago.
Excluding charges related to stock-based compensation and a gain from the sale of its shares in Baidu, the Chinese Internet company, Google earned $2.49 a share. Analysts had expected the company to earn $2.22 on that basis. Google’s revenue was $2.46 billion, up 77 per cent. Excluding the payments it makes to companies like AOL, Google’s revenue was $1.67 billion, up 88 per cent.
