Bullish November : Give it a TRY....whispered the Heart....
Friday, November 8, 2013
Here are five reasons that Twitter’s IPO trumped Facebook’s
1. Experienced Leadership
Twitter’s key founders – Co-inventor Biz Stone, Chairman Jack Dorsey and CEO Dick Costolo – are a different a breed of innovators than Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. While the latter has the honour of being a wunderkid in the internet world when his college project turned into a multi-billion dollar enterprise, the former are tried and tested start up businessmen of the digital world.
Zuckerberg was always hesitant and in denial of Facebook’s need to go public. The pressures and the skills required to manage a corporation are very different than being a software innovator, and in that respect Twitter’s management not only know the product they created but also the value of leveraging the bullish social media trends to make the most of market opportunities. In contrast, Zuckerberg had to go to the market for funding even after his company was reporting billion dollar revenues.
2. Balanced Sales Size
As the dates for Twitter’s IPO approached the number of shares on offer remained steady at 70 million with an additional 10 million to be sold. A plan well conceptualised and implemented to control the value of the shares and retain control over the management. Facebook on the other hand raised the size of its IPO by the day of the offering.
Twitter raised $ 1.8 billion with the market valuing the company at $31 billion, whereas Facebook raised $18 billion (including restricted shares) and reached a valuation of $100 billion. Considering Twitter’s complete lack of profits over the years and Facebook’s billion dollar revenue history, this looks like a magic trick by Twitter’s management in handling the IPO.
3. Seemingly no Insider Trading IssuesThe Twitter IPO made a spectacular appearance on the market overwhelming all expectations. Reuters
The Twitter IPO made a spectacular appearance on the market overwhelming all expectations. All funds raised are planned to be directed towards growing the business and usual corporate expenditures. However the controversy of Facebook’s over-valuation of prices along with the redirection of funds towards the pockets of a handful of early shareholders instead of the growth of the company makes Twitter seem like a sleek austere business as compared to Facebook, which looks bloated. While we’ll have to wait and see, setting a lower price in fact might have helped Twitter, even if some accuse it of leaving money on the table.
4. Market, Not Bank Support
As the Twitter IPO went through on Wednesday night, Twitter’s bankers could rest easy the next day. Due to Twitter’s trading rate throughout the day its banker’s remained uninvolved in managing the price of the shares whereas in Facebook’s case Morgan Stanley had to actively buy Facebook shares at $38 to make sure that it did not dip too low.
5. Low key is cool
While the debate will continue about whether Twitter priced too low, a smooth IPO will ensure, successful future fund-raising. And here, Twitter has done the smart thing, by staying away from the hoop-la.
Exim Bank, SME Chamber tie-up for export promotion
BL :AHMEDABAD, NOV 8: 2013
Exim Bank and SME Chamber of India have signed Memorandum of Cooperation for promotion of exports.
They will also focus on how to channelise export finance, identify export potential market, carry on research and survey on various products in demand in different countries and to provide training and education on market, export formalities as well as to resolve issues.
Exim Bank Chairman and Managing Director TCA Ranganathan and Chamber President Chandrakant Salunkhe signed the memorandum on Thursday.
Salunkhe pointed out that this partnership will be useful to provide support and assistance to small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs) from manufacturing sector to identify opportunities for technology transfer, joint ventures, new project exports, acquiring new technologies and to understand new market with quality and competitiveness.
Ranganathan said that the SMEs can take advantage of foreign exchange loans at low rate of interest and connect with potential market through Exim Bank’s regional branches in various countries. Exim Bank has product-wise and country-wise market surveys which will be useful for SMEs to enter into specific market with knowledge of demand and suppliers, price, quality and competition.
Besides guiding and supporting SMEs for export promotion, Exim Bank will also help them in the import of capital goods for production of quality products for domestic and international markets, he added.
Mementos associated with Gandhi come under the hammer in the West.
Kishore Singh : BS
November 8, 2013 Last Updated at 12:24 IST
The photograph that your grandfather had of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi with half a head of hair, standing deferentially in his company; your mother’s autograph of Bapu, somewhat crumpled but distinctive enough for his signature to show through; a signed copy of a book donated by the Mahatma to a library from where it was filched by a late honorary relative: it’s time to earn some remuneration from these provided you can get them to ye ol’ England and an auction house there with a fistful of provenance papers.
For all the noise about the father of the nation’s memorabilia being a national treasure, auction houses are heating up as more and more mementos associated with Gandhi come under the hammer in the West.
These have included his iconic eyeglasses — regrettably, those in the Sabarmati Ashram are replicas — and his spinning wheel, somewhat worn sandals, documents, letters, wills (of which he seems to have written a few), newspaper clippings, prayer beads, bed linen: the detritus of his life that had probably been retained by people who valued them not so much for their fiscal worth as much as their emotional or even historical association with one of the most significant leaders of the 21st century. It is this stuff that has been turned into auctioneering bounty in this century with more and more Gandhi collectables coming under the baton.
Mullock’s auction house in Ludlow, Shropshire — sounding delightfully like an address from a P G Wodehouse novel — has been at the centre of much of this action, including, bizarrely, a pinch of soil and grass stained by his blood taken from the spot where he was shot dead in 1948. Did someone back then imagine the fortune it might earn a few decades later? Unfortunately, no right to information can earn us the names of the consignees of this and other ephemera as they choose to conceal themselves behind smokescreens for fear of ridicule or, worse, persecution, yet not all of it might have been smuggled out — the Mahatma was not averse to sharing personal possessions with associates — though it cannot be ruled out that some of the treasures may, in fact, have been moved out of the country in more recent times for reasons that might be less than altruistic. After all, this week a modified charkha, a “last” will and other relics sold for Rs 1 crore, most bids for which came online, showing an interest far beyond the idyllic setting of bucolic Britain.
Earlier buyers have included Kamal Morarka (he bought the bloodstained soil as part of the 29 lots that Mullock’s auctioned last year for approximately Rs 90 lakh) and Vijay Mallya (whose bid included a blood test from Irwin Hospital, besides Gandhi’s glasses and sandals) from Antiquorum Auctioneers that ran to an alleged $1.8 million. Despite protests that Gandhi memorabilia belongs exclusively to the nation, recent auctions have drawn less attention and even less flak, perhaps recognising the need of individuals to own a part of Bapu’s tokens. Besides, institutions in India are hardly flush enough with funds to bid for these items at an open auction. Much of Gandhi’s legacy lies in tatters across several museums. That there is already so much in their archives, and given that there is nothing controversial — yet — in the auction lots, interest by dubious upholders of Gandhi’s legacy is fading away.
In the West, there is an active auction market for memorabilia, whether Princess Diana’s dresses or Hollywood glitter, something that has not yet caught on in India. Attempts to flog iconic Bollywood paraphernalia have been largely flaccid. But then, few would have the nerve to stir a hornet’s nest with an auction of, say, Indira Gandhi’s saris that she might have gifted to a few select friends whose families now probably own these “treasures”. Sadly, Indians tend to view such activities as commerce rather than one where it allows people from different walks of life to possess (and document) a slice of life of someone they might have admired. It is what makes us poor collectors, and, certainly, poor archivists. Princely baubles in the past have been hawked for the value of gold and gemstones without factoring in any historic worth, considered nebulous at best.
There is much to be said for such auctions to be conducted in India rather than in the West for the customs duties they attract when bringing the so-called assets back to the country — surely a more lenient view needs to be taken when claiming something for the country, as Vijay Mallya had complained when he had bid successfully for Tipu Sultan’s legacy, including his famous sword, but which sadly did not find the kind of favour from the government that Sachin Tendulkar’s Ferrari did. If such duties could be avoided, or at least decreased, and the issue of antiquities rationalised, the possibility of memorabilia being brought to India for auctioning, instead of being smuggled out — as is currently the case — might actually prove more helpful. Bapu’s heritage might then find a home among the aam Indians whose claim on him is at least as strong as the nation’s.
These have included his iconic eyeglasses — regrettably, those in the Sabarmati Ashram are replicas — and his spinning wheel, somewhat worn sandals, documents, letters, wills (of which he seems to have written a few), newspaper clippings, prayer beads, bed linen: the detritus of his life that had probably been retained by people who valued them not so much for their fiscal worth as much as their emotional or even historical association with one of the most significant leaders of the 21st century. It is this stuff that has been turned into auctioneering bounty in this century with more and more Gandhi collectables coming under the baton.
Mullock’s auction house in Ludlow, Shropshire — sounding delightfully like an address from a P G Wodehouse novel — has been at the centre of much of this action, including, bizarrely, a pinch of soil and grass stained by his blood taken from the spot where he was shot dead in 1948. Did someone back then imagine the fortune it might earn a few decades later? Unfortunately, no right to information can earn us the names of the consignees of this and other ephemera as they choose to conceal themselves behind smokescreens for fear of ridicule or, worse, persecution, yet not all of it might have been smuggled out — the Mahatma was not averse to sharing personal possessions with associates — though it cannot be ruled out that some of the treasures may, in fact, have been moved out of the country in more recent times for reasons that might be less than altruistic. After all, this week a modified charkha, a “last” will and other relics sold for Rs 1 crore, most bids for which came online, showing an interest far beyond the idyllic setting of bucolic Britain.
Earlier buyers have included Kamal Morarka (he bought the bloodstained soil as part of the 29 lots that Mullock’s auctioned last year for approximately Rs 90 lakh) and Vijay Mallya (whose bid included a blood test from Irwin Hospital, besides Gandhi’s glasses and sandals) from Antiquorum Auctioneers that ran to an alleged $1.8 million. Despite protests that Gandhi memorabilia belongs exclusively to the nation, recent auctions have drawn less attention and even less flak, perhaps recognising the need of individuals to own a part of Bapu’s tokens. Besides, institutions in India are hardly flush enough with funds to bid for these items at an open auction. Much of Gandhi’s legacy lies in tatters across several museums. That there is already so much in their archives, and given that there is nothing controversial — yet — in the auction lots, interest by dubious upholders of Gandhi’s legacy is fading away.
In the West, there is an active auction market for memorabilia, whether Princess Diana’s dresses or Hollywood glitter, something that has not yet caught on in India. Attempts to flog iconic Bollywood paraphernalia have been largely flaccid. But then, few would have the nerve to stir a hornet’s nest with an auction of, say, Indira Gandhi’s saris that she might have gifted to a few select friends whose families now probably own these “treasures”. Sadly, Indians tend to view such activities as commerce rather than one where it allows people from different walks of life to possess (and document) a slice of life of someone they might have admired. It is what makes us poor collectors, and, certainly, poor archivists. Princely baubles in the past have been hawked for the value of gold and gemstones without factoring in any historic worth, considered nebulous at best.
There is much to be said for such auctions to be conducted in India rather than in the West for the customs duties they attract when bringing the so-called assets back to the country — surely a more lenient view needs to be taken when claiming something for the country, as Vijay Mallya had complained when he had bid successfully for Tipu Sultan’s legacy, including his famous sword, but which sadly did not find the kind of favour from the government that Sachin Tendulkar’s Ferrari did. If such duties could be avoided, or at least decreased, and the issue of antiquities rationalised, the possibility of memorabilia being brought to India for auctioning, instead of being smuggled out — as is currently the case — might actually prove more helpful. Bapu’s heritage might then find a home among the aam Indians whose claim on him is at least as strong as the nation’s.
Indian entrepreneurs bag Youth Business International awards
BL ;PUNE, NOV 7: 2013
Indian entrepreneurs have bagged three out of five international awards given by The Prince’s Youth Business International (YBI) for 2013. Forty countries in the YBI network compete for these annual awards. The winners were felicitated by the Prince of Wales in St. James Palace.
The winner of the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award was Sharad Tandale, while Godavari Satpute bagged the prize for the Women Entrepreneur of the Year. Mentor of The year award was won by Mohan Singh while Vikram Deshmukh was highly commended by the Judging Panel for the Environmental Entrepreneur of the year award.
Pune-based Tandale has created an infrastructure engineering company that employs 175 people and provides a range of services in rural areas of India. His cost effective, business includes laying underground cable, building roads, water pipe fitting, mobile towers and electrical services.
Godavari Satpute from rural Maharashtra, who was supported by the Bharatiya designs and produces decorative paper lamps from waste material. In addition to financial security for her family, she helps her economically weak women employees achieve financial independence.
The entrepreneurs were supported and mentored by the Bharatiya Yuwa Shakti Trust.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)