Top Stories
Infosys falls on CLSA sales team's grim forecast
Shares of Infosys Ltd. fell on Wednesday after CLSA's sales team said that the stock could drop as much as 40% from the current levels and announced a price target of Rs. 1566. "The recent appreciation in the Indian currency might prove negative for the sector as well as for Infosys and its prices could fall," CLSA said in a sales note to clients. Infosys may cut its annual guidance when it reports quarterly results on October 12 because of a recent appreciation in the rupee and potential wage hikes.
While announcing results for the first quarter of FY13, Infosys had reduced the annual dollar revenue growth guidance to 5% from the April estimate of 8-10%. Indian IT services companies are aggressively going after big contracts with offshore billing rates in the US$14/hour area. It looks like IT services vendors are all scrambling to build order books at any cost. "This means sector multiples are likely to keep de-rating," CLSA sales team says.
Separately, Nomura said that it expects Infosys to retain its FY13 dollar revenue growth guidance of 5% but it could cut the earnings-per-share (EPS) view by ~2% to Rs. 163 in local currency terms because of the currency impact. Mid-September, the rupee strengthened 5% from June's high of just over 57/$ to 54/$. From mid-September, the rupee has gained another 3% - to ~52.30/$. Nomura also warns that any announcement on wage hikes would be key. "We believe there is a high likelihood of a wage hike in 3Q as growth comes in line with guidance," the Japanese investment bank says in a note.
The stock closed on that day at Rs. 2,578.55, down Rs 30.55 or 1.2% from the previous close. The stock hit a high of Rs2619 and a low of Rs2562.25.
Apple CEO Tim Cook says sorry for maps imbroglio
At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.We launched Maps initially with the first version of iOS. As time progressed, we wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps. In order to do this, we had to create a new version of Maps from the ground up.
There are already more than 100 million iOS devices using the new Apple Maps, with more and more joining us every day. In just over a week, iOS users with the new Maps have already searched for nearly half a billion locations. The more our customers use our Maps the better it will get and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback we have received from you. While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app.
Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard.
Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.
In Focus
IIFL Institutional Equities on IT: Strong and challenging environment
IIFL Institutional Equities, a part of the IIFL Group, one of the leading players in the Indian financial services space, in a recent report on IT Service sector said that although 2Q is seasonally a strong quarter, a challenging environment for large deals will likely limit revenue growth for leading IT vendors to 2.5-4.5% QoQ (USD).
IIFL Institutional Equities said, “We expect HCL Tech and TCS to continue registering the best growth. That said, our interactions indicate a modest improvement in the demand environment towards the end of the quarter. Consequently, we expect Wipro’s 3QFY13 guidance to be reasonably strong at 2-3% (revenue QoQ, USD).”
With INR appreciating sharply in the past week, we expect mid-tier vendors to be adversely impacted.
"We expect 20-35% drop in PAT (QoQ) for most mid-tier vendors owing to high forex losses. We also expect Infosys to revise its FY13 EPS guidance downwards to ~Rs160, led by a stronger INR," brokerage added.
The report was published by IIFL’s Institutional Equities Research desk.
Domestic News
Narayana Murthy to exit HSBC Holdings board: reports
HSBC Holdings Plc reportedly said that N R Narayana Murthy, co-founder of IT giant Infosys and the only Indian on its board, would retire as its director at the end of 2012.
HSBC Holdings Plc said that Renato Fassbind, former Chief Financial Officer of Credit Suisse Group, has been appointed a Director with effect from January 1, 2013, according to reports.
Reports also stated that Murthy will retire as a Director of HSBC Holdings plc on December 31, 2012 and will be succeeded as Chairman of the Corporate Sustainability Committee by Laura Cha.
Wipro appoints Vyomesh Joshi to its Board
Wipro Limited announced the appointment of Mr. Vyomesh Joshi, a well-respected information technology industry veteran and influencer, to its board of directors with immediate effect.
Joshi will serve as an independent member on the board and will bring to Wipro a wealth of experience, having spent over three decades in the industry. He was until recently the Executive Vice President of Hewlett-Packard's USD 25.8 bn* Imaging and Printing Group.
Welcoming Joshi to the Board, Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro Limited said, "He brings in a unique combination of wisdom and technical capabilities. I am sure that Wipro will benefit from his insights and experience."
Apple wants to open stores in India
I-Phone maker Apple Inc. seeks to open its own stores in India, reports said. At present the company brings its products to Indian consumers through partnerships with local distributors like Redington (India) Ltd. and Ingram Micro.
Apple might be able to open stores in India if the government allows the U.S. company's technology outsourcing operations in the country to be included as part of the mandatory 30% local-sourcing requirement for foreign retailers, the reported quoted the two executives as saying.
Infosys entry would give Bengal's image a fillip: NASSCOM
Nasscom has reportedly said that the presence of Infosys, which is in talks with the West Bengal government for setting up a campus would give a fillip to the state's positioning as an IT hub.
Earlier Infosys had planned to invest some Rs. 5bn to set up a development centre in Kolkata housing 5,000 people and the state government had allotted 50 acres to it for Rs. 750mn, according to reports.
There are reports that Infosys is negotiating with the state government for an SEZ status for setting up its first campus in the city.
WB Industry and IT Minister Partha Chatterjee had reported Infosys was considering an alternative route to set up its office in the state.
India will be world's fastest growing enterprise software market through 2016: Gartner
Despite challenging economic conditions, the enterprise software market in India is projected to grow 13.7 per cent in 2012, as revenue reaches $3.45 billion USD in 2012, according to Gartner, Inc. India’s enterprise software market is forecast to maintain its strong performance, with an estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.6 per cent from 2011 to 2016 – the highest growth rate in the world.
The increasing globalization of the Indian economy is leading to a growing need for modern software with the latest features and improved functionality.
“With Indian enterprises continuing to embrace IT to improve productivity and drive growth, penetration of information communication technology (ICT) infrastructure has been growing rapidly during the past decade. The primary drivers of growth have been domestic demand, the growing maturity of users and incremental enhancements in the technology,” said Asheesh Raina, principal research analyst at Gartner.
“India also enjoys a rich presence of international software and hardware vendors, backed by a very strong ecosystem of system integrators, service providers and business partners. A combination of sustainable domestic demand, presence of global vendors and entry of new small vendors with innovative products have made the overall ecosystem apt for robust growth.”
Google India celebrates Children’s Day by inviting young minds to design a Doodle
From commemorating birthdays of notable people to lauding achievements in science to applauding big cultural events like the Olympics, Google Doodles have celebrated special days across the globe. We are happy to announce the Doodle 4 Google competition for 2012 with the theme of ‘Unity in Diversity’. With this we are inviting all children between the ages of 5 to 16 years to share their creativity by doodling on the Google logo.
Last year, we received over a 100,000 entries and this year with some interesting enhancements, we expect the excitement levels to go higher, as the contest will reach over 40 cities. Like every year, the winning Doodle will be featured on the Google (India) HomePage on Children’s Day (November 14th). The final winner of the competition will be announced at a glittering event in New Delhi on November 6.
HCL Infosystems launches its mobility products in the UAE
HCL Infosystems Limited, India’s premier hardware, services and ICT Systems Integration and Distribution Company, has announced the launch of its highly acclaimed mobility products in the UAE. HCL enters the market with the global launch of the 3G-enabled 9.7 inch HCL ME G1 tablet, the latest in its highly successful ME series. The other tablets in the ME range, ME Y2 and ME U1 are also now available in the region.
All tablets in the ME series, including the ME G1 tablet are available at the GITEX Shopper 2012, and at all leading consumer electronics outlets in the UAE. The products are also available across Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Egypt.
HCL Tech announces exclusive Sponsorship of the Enterprise Architecture summit
TCS named exclusive information technology consultancy for 2012 Bank of America Chicago Marathon
42% of laptop owners use them both for work and for leisure: Research
EdServ acquires e-learninq businesses in Middle-East
Strontium participates in GITEX 2012
Persistent Systems appoints Nara Rajagopaian as Chief Product Officer
TCS announces Mumbai edition TCS IT Wiz
Infor launches latest version of Infor SyteLine in India
Mphasis slips as HP forecasts 2013 profit below estimates
Simplilearn.com wins TiE Lumis Excellence award
Oracle launches Oracle Network Applications Platform
International News
Internet grows to more than 240mn domain names
More than seven million domain names were added to the Internet in the second quarter of 2012, bringing the total number of registered domain names at June 30, 2012, to more than 240 million worldwide across all domains, according to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief, published by VeriSign, Inc., the trusted provider of Internet infrastructure services for the networked world.
The increase of 7.3 million domain names globally equates to a growth rate of 3.1 percent over the first quarter of 2012, and marks the sixth straight quarter with greater than two percent growth. Worldwide registrations have grown by 25.5 million, or 11.9 percent, since the second quarter of 2011.
The .com and .net Top-Level Domains (TLDs) experienced aggregate growth in the second quarter of 2012, reaching a combined total of approximately 118.5 million domain names in the adjusted zone for .com and .net. This represents a 1.6 percent increase in the base over the first quarter of 2012 and a 7.8 percent increase over the second quarter of 2011. At June 30, 2012, the base of registered names in .com equaled 103.7 million names, while .net equaled 14.8 million names.
New .com and .net registrations totaled 8.4 million during the second quarter of 2012. This is a 4.2 percent year-over-year increase in new registrations. The .com/.net renewal rate for the second quarter of 2012 was 72.9 percent, down from 73.9 percent for the first quarter of 2012.
Facebook has one billion members now
Facebook reached 1 billion monthly active users on September 14 at 12.45 PM Pacific time.
Since Facebook launched, it has seen:
Over 1.13 trillion likes since launch in February 2009
140.3 billion friend connections
219 billion photos uploaded
Data was pulled on 9/10/2012, and represents the total # of photos currently on this site - in other words, it excludes deleted photos. If we wanted to include all photos ever uploaded, the estimate we have is 265 billion. Photo uploading launched fall 2005.
Apple's share of US smartphone market rises...RIM loses
Apple has narrowed the gap with Samsung in the lucrative US smartphone market in the months before the release of iPhone 5, industry tracker comScore reported.
Samsung was the top-selling mobile-phone maker in the second quarter of 2012, with Apple in third place, according to data from Gartner.
Apple and Android-powered smartphones continued to dominate the US market, where both platforms increased shares at the expense of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM).
Samsung remained the top smartphone in the US with an unchanged 25.7% of the market at the end of August while Apple's share increased to 17.1% as compared to 15% in May, according to comScore.
Motorola and LG both lost ~1% of market share each to finish August with 11.2% and 18.2% of the US market, respectively.
The number of smartphone owners in the US grew by 6% to 116.5mn in the three-month period ended September.
Google-backed Android software remained the most popular smartphone platform with its share of the market growing 1.7% to 52.6%. Apple's share grew by 2.4% to 34.3%, according to comScore.
Share of Canada-based RIM dropped 3.1% to 8.3% while Microsoft and Symbian lost 0.4% each to drop to 3.6% and 0.7%, respectively.
Microsoft launches Dynamics NAV 2013
Microsoft launched enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013, a comprehensive business management solution for small and midsize businesses (SMB). It is the first Microsoft Dynamics ERP solution for Windows Azure giving customers the choice to move to the cloud on their own terms. Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 is simple to implement and use, with a familiar look and feel, great integration with other Microsoft technologies and a user interface tailored to the individual/specific organizational roles. Dynamics NAV 2013 combines business process, communications and collaboration capabilities to support SMB operations with secured, seamless integration and in turn enhance productivity.
Highly adaptable and rich with features, Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 is easy to deploy because of its on-premises or in the cloud capabilities. It helps companies manage their business, including finance, manufacturing, sales, shipping, project management, services, and more. It also optimizes IT investments and shorten the time to value with easy-to-use flexible solution. It also provides enhanced reporting, business insight and streamlines various management tools. Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 works seamlessly with other Microsoft technologies such as Microsoft Office and SharePoint and other.
Cognizant announces global alliance with Monitise
Cognizant and Monitise has announced a global alliance that will help financial institutions embrace the mobile channel of interaction, and develop effective and innovative mobile banking, payments, and commerce solutions.
Combining Cognizant’s extensive financial services and mobility expertise with Monitise’s leading mobile money platform, the alliance will help global financial institutions speedily respond to the mobile money opportunity that is gathering significant momentum. By leveraging an interoperable platform instead of solutions from disparate products and mobile operating systems, financial institutions will be able to lower the total cost of ownership, and drive newer revenue streams through enhanced mobile adoption.
“Mobile is, without question, the channel of the future,” said Alastair Lukies, Chief Executive of Monitise Group. “Our strategy involves extending our Monitise Enterprise Platform to the world’s leading banks and payment companies to help them improve and expand their customer relationships. As money becomes increasingly digitized amid exploding demand in the highly-competitive mobile money space, we look forward to collaborating closely with Cognizant to support financial institutions across the world in developing strategic, effective, and timely mobile services.”
Google details more layoffs: reports
Google Inc has reportedly raised its estimate of severance expenses at its Motorola Mobility unit.
The company reported that severance payments tied to the job cuts, originally announced in August, would affect "additional geographic regions outside of the U.S.," though it didn't detail where the layoffs were focused.
Google in August said it planned to shed about 4,000 Motorola Mobility workers around the world--roughly a fifth of the company's workforce--to help return the wireless phone maker to profitability, report says.
Worldwide wafer fab equipment spending to decline 13.3% in 2012: Gartner
Worldwide wafer fab equipment (WFE) spending is on pace to total $31.4 billion in 2012, a decline of 13.3 percent from 2011 spending of $36.2 billion, according to Gartner, Inc. While the market will improve in 2013, it will not return to positive growth, with WFE spending projected to total $31.2 billion, a 0.8 percent decline from 2012. In 2014 the market returns to growth, as it is projected to increase 15.3 percent to surpass $35.9 billion.
"The outlook for semiconductor equipment markets has deteriorated as the macro economy has weakened," said Bob Johnson, research vice president at Gartner. "WFE started off the year strong, as foundries and other logic manufacturers ramped up sub-30-nm (nanometer) production. However, demand for new equipment logic production will soften as yields improve, leading to declining shipment volumes for the rest of the year."
Zynga scales back its 2012 outlook
Google strikes deal with publishers
Microsoft Corp plans to launch its own news operation: reports
Indian green IT And sustainability spending to reach $70bn by 2015: Gartner
Gartner identifies three growth Opportunities in server market through 2015
Juniper Networks announces breakthrough products
GlobalLogic bolsters continued growth with new J.P. Morgan-led credit facility
Pegasystems tops 2012 iBPMS
Adobe unveils next generation AcrobatR XI
ASUS appoints DIGICARE as authorized service provider