Category: Software

MUMBAI: Sameer Manchanda-promoted Den Networks plans to dilute 10-15 per cent stake to build a fund corpus that would allow it to expand aggressively in a digital environment.

The multi-system operator (MSO) has passed an enabling resolution to raise fresh capital up to Rs 7.5 billion, via a mix of quasi equity/debt instrument, as it expects digitisation to drive consolidation in the cable TV sector.
 
“We will probably raise capital over the next 6-9 months. We want to be best positioned when the opportunity comes to spread digitisation across the country,” says Den Networks president – strategy and business development MG Azhar.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) recently recommended a four-phase digitisation process while setting a sunset date of 31 December 2013 for complete switchover to digital cable. The first phase shift from analogue to digital cable in the four metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai should be complete by 31 March 2011.

The government, however, is yet to publicly voice its views on the sector regulator‘s recommendations.

“There is a clear path for digitisation. The timelines may shift, depending on the government. But we want to be ready to grab the opportunity when it comes. Digitisation will drive consolidation in the cable TV sector,” says Azhar. 
 
Den will tap the GDR (global depositary receipts) market if it decides to raise fresh capital before November, says a source close to the company.

Den will be open to other instruments like QIP (qualified institutional placement) and FCCBs including GDR if the fund-raising activity happens after that, he adds.

The company had raised Rs 3.7 billion via an initial public offering (IPO) in November 2009.

MUMBAI: The Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers Association (CEAMA) has announced an overall industry growth in the second quarter across product categories.

LCD televisions, backed by sporting and festive-season demand, gained major sales from April to June 2010. CEAMA expects LCD TVs to surpass CRT TVs in sales by 2012, while CRTs will have a continued demand from low-penetration areas.
 
The audiovisual AV market is majorly impacted by 3-D Led’s and Blu-Ray technologies. In the second quarter of 2010, the estimated total number of LCD televisions sold were 0.6 million versus 0.3 million units in the second quarter of 2009.

CEAMA spokesperson Pradeep Kumar said, “The durable industry has seen a consistent growth. India is a strategic market for all the multinational giants in durable market and they are planning to make huge investment to grab the maximum share.”

The Indian consumer durables industry has witnessed a considerable change over the last few years. Changing lifestyle, greater affordability, and a surge in advertising have been instrumental in bringing about a sea change in the consumer behavior. Today, the consumer is more aware about energy-efficient appliances. As for LCD televisions, they are fast replacing CRT, boosting demand for them.

MUMBAI: Consumer electronics company Sansui has launched its new range of LCDs, Slim TVs and DVD players for the Indian market.

The company is also entering mobile handset business and plans to launch 10 models by end of the year. Through a multi- pronged strategy of introducing new products, entry into new business divisions, opening of dedicated customer care centers and special consumer oriented schemes, Sansui is targetting a turnover of Rs 2 billion by the end of 2011.

Sansui CMO Jaideep Rathore said, “We have launched our new range of Hard Rock LCDs and with this we plan to target a five per cent share in the Indian LCD market by the end of the current financial year. We also plan to increase our market share in television to 12 per cent.”
 
The new range of Hard Rock LCDs with unique 1200 watt Woofer Sound System offers high sound and view quality and comes with USB storage that enables customers to store movies, music and photographs.  
 
The company also unveiled its new range Slim TVs with touch control sensor, USB storage and access to Tweeter networking website. By the end of the month, Sansui would also be launching its Blue-ray DVD player range.

“We plan to invest over Rs 400 million in the next six months in advertising and marketing promotion initiatives,” says Rathore.

MUMBAI: Sameer Manchanda-promoted Den Networks has posted a 208 per cent jump in its consolidated net profit for the first quarter of the fiscal.
  
The multi-system operator (MSO) with a pan-India footprint has posted a net profit of Rs 100 million, up from Rs 32 million in the year-ago period.

Total income during the quarter jumped 16 per cent to Rs 2.5 billion, as against Rs 2.14 billion in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. 
 
Expenditure rose to Rs 2.14 billion compared to Rs 1.91 billion in the earlier year.

Ebitda was at Rs 357 million, up 54 per cent from Rs 232 million.

MUMBAI: Pay-TV channel Epix is in a five-year online rights agreement with Netflix. Netflix will get exclusive online rights to films from Epix‘s three equity partners, Paramount Pictures, Lionsgate and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Netflix is expected to cough out $1 billion to Epix as licensing fees for the full five-year term that will bring the channel closer to its goal of breaking even by 2011.
  
The arrangement would also allow subscribers of Netflix to watch films such as Iron Man 2, Dinner for Schmucks and this week‘s release The Expendables through the company‘s internet streaming service.

With this, Netflix, best known for its DVD-by-mail business, would become a formidable competitor to Time Warner‘s dominant pay channel Home Box Office that has films from Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures in its basket. 
 
Netflix has been investing a huge sum to acquire content for its streaming video service. It already has a deal with Liberty Media‘s pay channel Starz that provides films from Walt Disney Studios and Sony Pictures. It recently also acquired exclusive pay-TV window rights for films produced by Relativity Media.
Now the question before the two companies is when exactly Epix would allow Netflix to start streaming its films. It is being said that this would happen some time after Epix starts airing new films a few months after they launch them on DVD.

The agreement would allow Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM to sell and rent their movies via digital stores such as Apple Inc.‘s iTunes.

MUMBAI: In its bid to raise $100 million to diversify and boost its user base and revenue, Internet phoning giant Skype has filed for an IPO. For this matter to fructify, the Luxembourg-based company would sell as much as $100 million of depositary shares held by its existing owners.

The company plans to use the money it raises from the IPO for “general business purposes” as it follows a strategy to grow both its base of free users and paid subscribers, increase its marketing and advertising revenue and expand its services for businesses.
 
In the first half of 2010, Skype increased its net revenue 25 per cent to $406.1 million from $324.8 million in the same period of the preceding year. However, its net income dropped to $13.1 million from $22.5 million.

As of 30 June this year, Skype had a monthly average of 124 million free users and 8.1 million paying users, up from 91 million free users and 6.6 million paying users respectively in the second quarter of 2009. Compared to 397 million users it had in the second quarter of 2009, Skype has as much as 560 million in the same period this year.
 
Since it was founded in 2003, the company has been wanting to float an IPO but gave up its plans when it was acquired by eBay for $2.6 billion. Later the VoIP service it started proved to be a failure, after which eBay thought of getting rid of Skype.
Zennstrom and co-founder Janus Friis then filed a litigation against eBay, which had failed to acquire key Skype software when it purchased the VoIP company. The litigation was settled when the Skype founders received an undisclosed amount of Skype equity.
 

MUMBAI: Brainware, which provides intelligent data capture and enterprise search solutions, has announced that UK pay TV service provider BSkyB has selected the company‘s Brainware Distiller solution for the processing of invoices in the UK and Ireland.

BSkyB will also implement the Brainware Distiller Visibility module for real-time metrics and reporting on the invoice processing cycle, as well as Brainware‘s own workflow and exception handling module.
 
Brainware CEO Carl Mergele says, “Brainware Distiller consistently outperforms competing technologies. Other data capture solutions require the client to spend extensive man-hours adapting their software to the department‘s needs, creating thousands of templates before realizing automation. By eliminating templates from the equation, our solution does the adapting, offering a more immediate return on investment.” 
 
BSkyB markets its programmes through various channels, including free to air and mobile television platforms. The group also provides telephone and broadband services to its direct to home customers.

MUMBAI: France-based Dassault Syst?mes (DS) has announced that Billions, Save Them All, its first title built on the new 3DVIA Studio engine, was launched on Facebook Platform.

Billions is a 3D action/puzzle game made unique by the combination of dreamlike art and innovative gameplay where players construct 3D cube bridges and walk on all sides. It is a 3D game that stands out in the predominantly 2D Facebook Platform world.
 
In Billions, players compete for high scores with friends and other Facebook users. By assuming the role of a Glow Agent, players navigate through increasingly difficult levels to save Mogaloos, a race of cuddly, cube-like creatures. Puzzle-solving skills are a must to reach checkpoints quickly, saving as many Mogaloos as possible while building bridges with as few cubes as possible.

Dassault Syst?mes CEO, 3DVIA Lynne Wilson says, “Billions is an excellent example of what 3DVIA Studio is capable of and supports our mission to empower anyone to create and communicate in 3D. In just a few short months, a very small development team built and published a visually-stunning, fully 3D application that runs in real-time on Facebook Platform. This is the future of game development.” 
 
33DVIA Studio brings the power of an AAA engine to an easy-to-use framework. With rapid prototyping, development and publishing capabilities, as well as seamless integration with 3DVIA.com for hosting, distribution and access to a community of more than 190,000 users who can test and promote applications, 3DVIA Studio is a perfect tool for indie developers.

In addition, user-generated applications created with 3DVIA software and hosted on 3DVIA.com can easily be published straight to Facebook Platform and played through a dedicated, sharable Facebook URL.
 

MUMBAI: Universal Music Group has removed most of its artists‘ music videos from US music broadcaster MTV‘s Web site due to disagreement over license fees.

For years, UMG conducted direct licensing talks with MTV. Now, however, it is directing all negotiations to go through the Vevo joint venture, which includes Sony Music Entertainment.
 
MTV says, “For almost 30 years, we have enjoyed long and colourful partnerships with all the music labels, including UMG and their talented roster of artists on MTV, VH1 and CMT. During our recent discussions with Vevo, we were unable to reach a fair and equitable agreement for rights to stream UMG artists‘ music video content. As a result, UMG has elected to pull their music videos from our Web sites. We are disappointed by this move and sincerely hope that UMG will work with us toward a fair resolution and allow their artists to once again connect with the millions of music fans who visit MTV.com, VH1.com and CMT.com every month.” 
 
UMG said, “MTVN has been unwilling to negotiate a fair syndication deal with Vevo to carry our artists‘ videos and consequently our videos will not be shown on their online properties.”
No content, however, has been pulled from MTV‘s television programming.
 

MUMBAI: In a move to compete with Facebook by offering social networking and entertainment, internet giant Google has acquired social technology company Slide for $ 200 million.

The acquisition will help Google make its services more “socially aware.”
 
Currently Google faces mounting competition from Facebook and Twitter with both the entities attracting a growing number of online advertisers and thus threatening to drain off Google‘s main source of revenue. To counter that, Google is making more acquisitions and adding social features to existing services.

“For Google, the web is about people and we‘re working to develop open, transparent and interesting methods to allow our users to take full advantage of how technology can bring them closer to friends and family ,” said Google engineering director David Glazer.  
 
Slide, a company founded by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin in 2005 as a photo-sharing site, has about 125 employees and raised $50 million from investors that valued the company at more than $500 million.