Though i am not much into reading business news but one thing which i am following from the past few days is bidding war for hutchison essar. This has all the components of a financial thriller.
First there were rumours that R-Comm was interested in buying Hutchison Telecom's share in hutch essar. (Hutchison Telecom is owned by owned by hong kong conglomerate Hutchison whampoa headed by hyperbillionare Li Ka-shing). It was thought that by giving rise to such speculations thereby increasing the valuation, R-com plans to remove unnecessary players from the scene . But this strategy backfired when the world's largest telecom major, vodafone also showed its interest in buying out the stake. Two years bacak vodafone unsuccessfully tried a bid for AT&T and recently it has been in some quagmires. So this time it seems to be extra cautious. Also if succesful this time then it will help Arun Sarin, CEO vodafone, to regain some of his dwindlimg credibility.
In between all this hoopla, The Ruias who own 33% stake in Hutcisson Essar thought that why sell such a potential money spinner. Instead why not buy out the whole company. So they have also started chalking out their separate plans.
Hutchisson Telecom is taking the services of Goldman Sachs to advise it.
While Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group(ADAG) on the other hand is depending on its SPV(Specaial purpose Vehicle) fromed with Cralyle and Blackstone, as current rules don't allow it to own over 10% or less than 100% in a competing circles on its own. Vodafone is in talks with Texas Pacific Group(TPG) to raise funds for its bid. Vodafone will have to look for a indian partner to own more than 74% stake in an indain telecom venture. Ruias have roped in Bearn Stearns to raise funds and Euromax capital is advising them. Also Maxis Communication of Malaysia has shown its interest in the bid.
Goldman Sachs has initailly valued Hutchisson Essar's value at $ 18 billion according to witch hutchsioon's 66% stake comes to a value of 12 billion. But the next day news comes that hutchisson wants $14 billion+ for its stake in the company which takes the value of combined entity to $21 billion.
Now with vodafone formally bidding $ 18 billion for the combined entity (which means $12 billion for hutchison's stake) and ADAG also entering the race formally the field is all set for what could be the ultimate cliffhanger. But for the time being lets wait and watch!
updates:- Nothing much seems to happening..
- Hinduja brothers have also shown interest..Orascom is also gainin ground.
- Arun sarin of Vodafone is still keeping his cards close to his chest.
- Realiance is also yet to make a bid.
- In between all this brouhaha many top-most managemnt gurus have warned the buyers of inflated valuations of hutch.
- finally....at last...vodafone gets Hutch...hope turns out to be a good venture for Vodafone nd for Mr. Sarin
Friday, December 29, 2006
check this out.
I happened to come across this blog entry by Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert). http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2006/10/good_news_day.html
Just shows that how positive attitude and a never say die spirit can do wonders.
Specially the first line of 8 para: "Just because no one has ever gotten better from Spasmodic Dysphonia before doesn’t mean I can’t be the first" reflects his fortitude.
Just shows that how positive attitude and a never say die spirit can do wonders.
Specially the first line of 8 para: "Just because no one has ever gotten better from Spasmodic Dysphonia before doesn’t mean I can’t be the first" reflects his fortitude.
Tuesday, December 5, 2006
No time to waste..
From the past few days there have been many speculations about the university exam date. Most of them centered around 7th-8th jan. So i was just chilling out for the moment. But the cat is out of the bag and much to everybody's astonishment we have our exams a lot before that. The date is 27th of jan. In between we have our internal prcaticals and to make matters worse we have to take our sessional exams as well. We have also been informed that this year there is a change in exam pattern. So all in all seems like a complete reciepe for disaster.
Already this year i am in worst position to take the exams. Placemeet process and CAT took a lot of my time. Neways will have to cope up with it.
Hoping to come to grip with the situation soon.
update: Unversity Exams have finally started. First one 'operating Sysytems' was ok. 5 more to go.
Already this year i am in worst position to take the exams. Placemeet process and CAT took a lot of my time. Neways will have to cope up with it.
Hoping to come to grip with the situation soon.
update: Unversity Exams have finally started. First one 'operating Sysytems' was ok. 5 more to go.
Monday, December 4, 2006
My CAT experience.
I still remember the days when i was contemplating about taking cat this year or not. I've got a couple of jobs by then. But then i thought that i've got nothing to lose so why not give it a good shot this year itself. I studied, prepared some stratagies etc etc all through correspondence. Finally the D-day arrived. I was a bit nervous but thats usual when you have to give an exam that will be deciding your future.
In the exam I got stuck up in a question. (Q 70 set 444). The question was of simple equations which has been my favourite topic right from class 8th. I forgot the oft reapeated advice of not spending much time on a single question. But this question had two parts which meant full 8 marks. I just gave in to the temptation and solved it 3 times by different approaches to get the same answer but which was nowhere in the options. As a result I lost my cool became tensed and made a mess of my paper.
At night i checked my scores and to my horror I found that there was a mistake in that question.Though it doesn't mean that if i hadn't attempted that question i would have got great marks, VA section was as tough as it could get. Maybe the exam would have gone a bit better if had left that ques after first trial. Neways what has been done can't be undone and Thats life!.I am getting extremely low scores.
So one thing is for sure:- CAT is all about time management, flexibility and your attitude, and i learnt it the hard way.
As of now after completing this final year of BE I'll be going for job in one of the companies(now three) in which I have been placed. This does not means that have I given up my aspirations of cracking the cat.
I will be giving it again and this time with renewed faith and better prepration. Afterall failures are stepping stones to success.
In the exam I got stuck up in a question. (Q 70 set 444). The question was of simple equations which has been my favourite topic right from class 8th. I forgot the oft reapeated advice of not spending much time on a single question. But this question had two parts which meant full 8 marks. I just gave in to the temptation and solved it 3 times by different approaches to get the same answer but which was nowhere in the options. As a result I lost my cool became tensed and made a mess of my paper.
At night i checked my scores and to my horror I found that there was a mistake in that question.Though it doesn't mean that if i hadn't attempted that question i would have got great marks, VA section was as tough as it could get. Maybe the exam would have gone a bit better if had left that ques after first trial. Neways what has been done can't be undone and Thats life!.I am getting extremely low scores.
So one thing is for sure:- CAT is all about time management, flexibility and your attitude, and i learnt it the hard way.
As of now after completing this final year of BE I'll be going for job in one of the companies(now three) in which I have been placed. This does not means that have I given up my aspirations of cracking the cat.
I will be giving it again and this time with renewed faith and better prepration. Afterall failures are stepping stones to success.
Friday, December 1, 2006
The rumour effect
A day before yesterday there was a mild earth quake in our city. I was in college at that time. Before I could realise that the tremor was in reality an earthquake and run out of the class along with other students it was over. Anyways it gave rise to many rumours some of which were quite ridiculous. Some them were as follows:-
1) The earthquake measured 6.0 on richter scale.
Now where on this earth will an earthquake of this magnitude leave all the buildings intact with only a few cracks. In reality it measured just 3.9 on richter scale.
2)In a school the roof has fallen killing 3 students and one teacher.
The collector, SP and other govt. officials reached the school only to find that nothing of that sort has ocurred.
3)Now the most ludicrous one :- The earthquake has caused a wide chasm in ground. Lava is flowing out of it and this is being reprted on all news channels including BBC.
Large number of people left their daily chores and flocked to see this never before phenomenon in our city. It was concluded that it was a small fire and smoke was coming from a pile of garbage which had been burnt. The next day i found that there was no mention of the news in local news paper leave alone BBC.
5)The quake came at about 11 in the morning. There were rumours that next tremors were expected at 12.00 and also at 3.00 pm making all the people really uneasy. Some of them actually spent the rest of the day outside their homes. In reality there were no such warnings.
5)A telephone tower has fallen down killing a large number of people.
There were many simlilar rumours. Had these rumours been true then i believe the death toll would hav easily crossed 70-80.
The actuality:- It was just a mild tremor which lasted for just a few seconds (on higher side i think for 8-10 seconds). Only a girl died and even that was due to fear and not due any wall or celing falling down.
1) The earthquake measured 6.0 on richter scale.
Now where on this earth will an earthquake of this magnitude leave all the buildings intact with only a few cracks. In reality it measured just 3.9 on richter scale.
2)In a school the roof has fallen killing 3 students and one teacher.
The collector, SP and other govt. officials reached the school only to find that nothing of that sort has ocurred.
3)Now the most ludicrous one :- The earthquake has caused a wide chasm in ground. Lava is flowing out of it and this is being reprted on all news channels including BBC.
Large number of people left their daily chores and flocked to see this never before phenomenon in our city. It was concluded that it was a small fire and smoke was coming from a pile of garbage which had been burnt. The next day i found that there was no mention of the news in local news paper leave alone BBC.
5)The quake came at about 11 in the morning. There were rumours that next tremors were expected at 12.00 and also at 3.00 pm making all the people really uneasy. Some of them actually spent the rest of the day outside their homes. In reality there were no such warnings.
5)A telephone tower has fallen down killing a large number of people.
There were many simlilar rumours. Had these rumours been true then i believe the death toll would hav easily crossed 70-80.
The actuality:- It was just a mild tremor which lasted for just a few seconds (on higher side i think for 8-10 seconds). Only a girl died and even that was due to fear and not due any wall or celing falling down.
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