TCS increases CEO‘s monthly salary to Rs 15L

Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest software services exporter, said it has raised the chief executive N Chandrasekaran's maximum salary limit by 50% to Rs 15 lakh a month with effect from April 1, 2014, to "compensate for the additional business activities and responsibilities." 

Including benefits and bonuses, TCS CEO was paid around Rs 12 crore in the year to 31 March 2013. The salary bump comes at a time when TCS is easily outpacing its competition in the Indian IT outsourcing industry. Revenue in 2012-13 grew 14%, ahead of the industry growth rate of about 11%.

TCS also expects to beat IT industry body Nasscom's 2013-14 growth expectations of about 12-14%.

There will be a proportionate increase in benefits related to his salary, the company said in its annual report for the year 2012-2013.

The company said it ask shareholders to approve Chandrasekaran's revised compensation at its annual general body meeting, slated to be held on June 28th

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Cigniti Technologies acquires Gallop Solutions

Hyderabad-based Cigniti Technologies Limited, a software testing services company has announced the acquisition of Gallop Solutions Inc, a US based specialized software testing services company. The combined entity is poised to become the world's third largest independent software testing services company with revenues of $40 Million and more than 800 people worldwide.

 

Gallop specializes in building and implementing niche solutions in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) space with a special focus on Quality, Test Automation and Test Asset Modernization. Founded in 2009 by Manohar Reddy and Mahendra Alladi, Gallop Solutions is based in Irving, Texas in the US with an offshore technology center at Hyderabad, India. Gallop employs more than 200 people worldwide with 2012 revenues over $9.5 Million.

"The combined revenues will take Cigniti past the $40 Million run rate and make us the world's third largest independent testing services company. This will help our mission of becoming the world's largest independent testing services company in the next few years. IP led testing is going to be key driver of growth in the future and Gallop's experience in delivering testing solutions around proprietary IP led products such as WinQuick and RoboQuick will add a lot of value to our clients and complement Cigniti's SMART Tools," said Sriram Rajaram, president strategy and corporate development.

"Gallop's IP led testing capabilities can reach a wider client base with the help of Cigniti's investments in sales and marketing. Our testing tools expertise and solution driven approach perfectly complements Cigniti in maintaining the differentiation in testing services space," said Mahendra Alladi, VP of technology and professional services at Gallop.

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IBM buys SoftLayer, creates new cloud division

International Business Machines (IBM) said on Tuesday it would acquire web hosting company SoftLayer Technologies and create a new division for clients interested in so-called cloud services, a move to better compete with larger rivals in the space. 

Executives with IBM and SoftLayer declined to comment on the terms of the deal on a call with reporters. 

Reuters reported in March that IBM, among others, had been in talks to buy SoftLayer in a deal that could fetch more than $2 billion. 

Dallas-based SoftLayer, which leases online storage space to companies, was founded in 2005 and has become what it says is the world's largest privately held website hosting service. The company provides its 25,000 customers, including AT&T and Citrix Systems, with cloud infrastructure. 

The company competes with Amazon's web services business and Rackspace Hosting. 

Like rivals Hewlett Packard and Microsoft, IBM has increasingly invested in cloud services as corporate users move away from costly internal information technology infrastructure. 

IBM has traditionally specialized in assisting large corporate and government users but has been trying in recent years to expand into smaller businesses. 

Aiming big

But Erich Clementi, senior vice president of IBM Global Technology Services, said on a call with reporters that IBM is shooting squarely for the large business segment with this acquisition. 

"We are the largest infrastructure provider to the enterprise world on the planet," he said "That is our focus." 

Over the last few years, web hosting companies have been considered attractive takeover candidates as technology and telecom companies look to improve the performance and cost efficiencies of their cloud computing services for businesses. 

Wells Fargo analyst Gray Powell estimated that the transaction was worth 11.1 times SoftLayer's projected 2013 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. 

That compares with Rackspace, which is currently trading at 11 times 2013 estimated Ebitda, Powell noted. 

IBM said it expected to gain $7 billion annually in revenue from cloud services by the end of 2015. It created a new division called Cloud Services, which will combine SoftLayer and IBM's existing offerings into a global platform. 

SoftLayer is majority held by GI Partners, which purchased all of the equity in partnership with the company's management in August 2010. 

Data storage equipment maker EMC had been approached about SoftLayer as well. An EMC spokesman said on Tuesday, "EMC was initially approached, uninterested and decided not to bid." 

IBM said it expected the deal to close in the third quarter. Shares of IBM were down about 1% at $206.78.

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Zynga to cut 30 jobs in India

Online gaming company Zynga is laying off at least 30 of its over 400 employees in India as part of a global restructuring. Globally, Zynga , creator of the once wildly popular FarmVille and City-Ville games, is laying off 520 employees, about 18% of its 3,000-strong workforce. 

Zynga had not responded to a mail sent by TOI at the time of going to print, but company founder Mark Pincus's letter to employees said the layoff impact would be felt across every group in the company. The word in Zynga India is that at least 6% of the employees here would be impacted. Zynga's Bangalore centre, started in 2010, has rapidly expanded to become the company's second largest operation in the world, after its San Francisco centre. It started as a centre doing core R&D for the company. A year later started a studio that now manages multiple games, developing new content and creating new features for them. 

On his first visit to India in April this year, Pincus had said India had been "a terrific investment and experience for us" . That experience and the lower costs may be the reason why the layoffs in India are limited, compared to the global cuts.

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EBay to open ‘shoppable windows‘ in New York

The first four of these screens will open from June 8 through July 7 in busy parts of New York City, such as the lower east side and Soho.

EBay Inc is launching virtual stores called "shoppable windows" this month that the e-commerce company hopes will help retailers generate more sales from their existing physical store networks. 

The first four of these screens will open from June 8 through July 7 in busy parts of New York City, such as the lower east side and Soho. They will sell 30 items from Kate Spade Saturday, a new fashion brand launched this year by apparel retailer Fifth & Pacific Companies Inc. 

EBay set up a window display in New York City in late 2011, but those storefronts did not let shoppers order products on the screen. 

The new screens measure about 9 feet (2.7 meters) across and 2 feet (0.6 meter) high and will appear on the front windows of closed stores. Shoppers will be able to touch the screens to order and have products delivered to them within an hour via courier. Payment will be accepted by the couriers through PayPal Here, a mobile payment service developed by eBay. 

This is the latest effort by eBay to work more closely with large retailers that are looking to reach more online and mobile shoppers. The company has attracted some large retailers, such as Target Corp, to its online marketplace, while developing mobile shopping technology for other retailers such as Macy's Inc. 

EBay's "shoppable windows" are an extension of the shift to mobile shopping, according to Steve Yankovich, head of the company's Innovation and New Ventures group, which developed the technology. 

"This extends the boundary of the store. Suddenly the physical store, by virtue of online technology, extends to any space that's interesting to use," Yankovich said. 

For Fifth & Pacific, the windows will help launch its new Kate Spade Saturday brand without opening new physical stores, at least initially, according to Chief Executive William McComb. 

However, the company also plans to use the technology in existing stores of its other brands, such as Juicy Couture and Kate Spade New York, he added. 

"This gives us the ability to produce more from our retail space," McComb said. "My nickname for it is the Wall as a Mall." 

McComb said he is considering putting shoppable windows in small Juicy Couture stores that will offer about 200 different shoes to buy. 

The company may also use the windows in Kate Spade New York stores to sell home furnishings, bedding, linens and towels. 

"We would never be able to fit all those products in a store in the traditional way," McComb said. "These things would typically require an extra 10,000 square feet of store space. But through partnerships like this eBay one we could do this through stores that are 2,000 square feet."

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Official says data show US cyberattacks on China

High-tech spying from inside China will top the agenda when President Barack Obama meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping this weekend in California.

China's Internet security chief has told state media that Beijing has amassed large amounts of data about US-based hacking attacks against China but refrains from blaming the White House or thePentagon because it would be irresponsible.


The state-run English-language China Daily reported Wednesday that Huang Chengqing, director of the government's Internet emergency response agency, said Beijing and Washington should cooperate rather than confront each other in the fight against cyberattacks. Huang also calls for mutual trust. 

High-tech spying from inside China will top the agenda when President Barack Obamameets with Chinese President Xi Jinping this weekend in California. The White House sees cybersecurity as a leading threat to the U.S economy and national security. 

The Chinese government has denied engaging in cyberspying against the United States.

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BlackBerry India MD: Don‘t have a portfolio like Samsung

A month into his new role, BlackBerry India managing director Sunil Lalvani says his company will not ape competition strategies of price drops or liquidating old stock, but will bet on offering value to drive its sales. The Canadian smartphone maker also has no intention to get into the $100 (approx Rs 5,600) device market in India, he told ET in an interview. 

About the plans to offer BlackBerry Messenger free on Android and iOS platforms, Lalvani says there is a possibility of losing customers to rivals but adds that it may also bring customers back to BlackBerry devices because they can connect to friends using other smartphones. Edited excerpts: 

BlackBerry Messenger will soon be made available for free for Google Android and Apple iOS devices. Will this change your revenue model in India, where telcos offer paid plans for BBM alone for around Rs 129 a month? Have you initiated talks with mobile operators for renegotiation of revenue share? 

We have very strong relations with top nine carriers in India and we're well-positioned to exploit this as we can grow the market and get BBM into more users, across platforms. We can also get BES10 (BlackBerry Enterprise Service), which now manages enterprise customers across Android, BB and iOS, and monetize this. 

So overall, it becomes a revenue share for carriers and us. It's too early to say about negotiations with carriers as we're still unclear as to when will iOS and Android approve BBM on their app stores and whether they will charge for these apps. 

BlackBerry India's largest user base — the youth — buy the smartphone for the BBM experience. If BBM is available on other platforms, then these consumers may move to, say, iPhone or Samsung Galaxy. What will BlackBerry do to keep these customers from moving to other brands? 

If a user wants to move on the basis of price consideration, because he would get a $100 (approx Rs5,600) Android device where we don't have an equivalent, then they will switch. We may not be able to retain a customer whose prime consideration is budget or price. 

On the contrary, we might find a scenario where loyal customers that had moved on from BlackBerry coming back now that they will be able to connect to their friends through BlackBerry cross platform. Further, the first-time smartphone owners could also come to BlackBerry (Curve) because cross platform BBM is not restricting them to a small user group. We have begun offering the new Curve for EMI of Rs 799 and data plans for as low as Rs 129 for tier 2 and 3 circles, focusing on first time users. 

Do you think new handsets will push up market share? And if BlackBerry does not bring handsets in quick succession like Samsung does, would you be able to compete at all? 

We're not here to ape competition strategy of price drops, or to liquidate old stock or inventory like some companies are doing. India has always been top priority market for BlackBerry globally. Z10 was launched in India within a month of global launch and India will be the second country in Asia Pacific to get the Q10. We're not indulging in price wars with competition or massive cash back offers, but we're offering value. 

We have ensured that total cost of ownership of a BlackBerry comes down, so we lowered data plan prices from Rs 299 to Rs 129 a month for 15 circles, for full BlackBerry experience. We've rolled this out with Aircel, Idea and Vodafone. We're in talks with other operators to taking it pan-India 

You say India is one of the top priority markets for BlackBerry globally, but the Z10 and the upcoming Q10 don't exhibit the element of affordability that most Indian consumers look out for... 

We don't want to play in all the handset market segments, from under $50 to over $500, because we don't have the portfolio. We don't want to set false pretexts by saying that we will be there in the $100 segment. The Q10 (to be launched day after) and Z10 are placed as premium devices in the market for which, we know, that the consumer will pay a premium for the value they offer. We're addressing the customer base that owns a $100 device and is now looking to upgrade to a $300 (approx Rs 17,000) smartphone. With the Q5, which will come on the BB10 platform, we're targeting the urban youth.

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