Business Roundup # Week 42

Business this week
Image used for representation only

 

IT Jobs To Slow

IT firms in India may further slow down their hiring pace over the next two quarters, a report says.

The Experis IT Employment Outlook Survey also indicated that there would be more job cuts in the next six to 12 months. It said that hiring intentions had fallen 23 percentage points from the last quarter.

Shopping Bonanza

Amazon India and Flipkart netted a whopping $450 million in the second leg of its festive sales, according to a report.

Industry sources said that while the second leg of the sales was smaller than the first, it had still grown 200 per cent over the same period last year. The results were also a major boost for Amazon.

VW Local Plan

Top European carmaker Volkswagen (VW) is banking on its alliance with Skoda to make new models suited to the Indian market, a report says.

Skoda, which was given the responsibility to develop cost-effective cars for emerging markets, will work with VW to make region-specific models, a top official said. This will help the company to be closer to the local customers and cater to their specific needs.

Xiaomi Focus

Chinese mobile firm Xiaomi is aiming to become an internet company in the future in line with its China model, a report reveals.

It hopes to monetise services like finance and entertainment as part of its future plan, a top official said. However, currently it is focused on taking a leadership position in the handset market.

Airtel Takes On Jio

Bharti Airtel has launched a 4G smartphone to battle Reliance Jio in the low-cost phone market.

Priced at Rs 1,399 compared with Jio Phone’s 1,500, Airtel is hoping to boost its customer share in a competitive market. It battle is bound to benefit consumers as they will be spoilt for choice in the low-end market and will gain through unlimited voice and free data daily.

Bollywood Flops

The Bollywood box office has performed miserably in the first half of this financial year with only seven films making it to the hit category out of a total of 70 films released in the period April-September, report says.

Even Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan could not draw audiences as their films flopped. Films with a storyline and not many big names did well at the box office. These include Shubh Mangal Savdhaan, Bareilly Ki Barfi, Sachin: A Billion Dreams, Newton, and Lipstick Under My Burkha.

$750,000 Investment

Rainmaker Ventures has invested $750,000 (Rs 4.93 crore) in Singapore-based programmatic media firm Oplifi, says a report.

This move will help Oplifi to boost its presence in India. The deal will help early stage venture firm Rainmaker to open up one more service line across its companies and open up the Southeast Asia region to it, a top official said.

Three In Race For Shipyard

Three firms, Mahindra & Mahindra , Shapoorji Pallonji Group and Liberty House of the UK are vying to acquire the debt-laden ABG Shipyard, a report says.

A consortium of lenders led by ICICI Bank is seeking to sell the shipyard to recover the debt. The three firms have bid separately for the firm, with offers ranging from Rs 3,000 crore and Rs 3,500 crore.

Harley Skills Centre

Harley-Davidson is planning to open a skills centre in the country to train its employees and dealership staff, according to a report.

Called the Harley-Davidson University, the centre will also offer courses in management, finance and branding among others. The US-based firm has three such centres in the Asia-Pacific region.

 

Babu Kalyanpur
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