Japanese consumer electronics giants in
a sea of trouble
The
cup of woes for Japanese consumer electronics firms seems to be brimming over.
Be it Sony, Sharp or Panasonic, all of them are bleeding red. For instance,
Panasonic Corp will lose $10 billion in the financial year 2013 as it gets down
to writing off billions of dollars in losses in its mobile and energy business.
The company is heading towards its fourth year of net loss, which in the
current financial year adds up to 765 billion yen, almost equivalent to last
year’s record net loss of 772 billion yen. After writing down the loss for the
current financial year, its cumulative losses over five years comes to a
staggering 20,890 billion yen. In a bid to stanch the losses, the company has
so far laid off 36,000 personnel. At the same time it has undertaken an
ambitious restructuring exercise to get the business back in shape. Its overall
restructuring costs in the first half of this year ballooned to 356 billion
yen, and it expects such costs to reach 440 billion yen for the year. No doubt
the charges are high but they are a small price to pay for turning around a
once thriving business.
Biggest deal in publishing
Two
of the world’s largest book publishers – Penguin Books and Random House – have
decided to merge. Under the plan, Germany’s Bertelsmann, which owns Random
House, will own 53% of the joint venture while Britain’s Pearson, owner of
Penguin, would own the rest. The transaction will close in the second half of
2013, following regulatory approval. The joint venture will put the combined
entity ahead of French publishing house Lagardere, the world’s largest
publisher in consumer publishing market. Lagardere controls 17% of the global
consumer publishing trade, while the combined company will be able to capture
26% of the global consumer publishing books market. The merger would provide
significant synergies and the opportunity to spend more on the new technologies
transforming the publishing industry
Facebook shows signs of getting its mojo
back
Facebook
became the only US company to debut with a market value of more than $100
billion, but its stock price dropped more than 50% after the IPO in May this
year. The disastrous IPO was obviously a wake up call for the world’s biggest
social media networking company. Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg has since
rolled out several new ad products and pushed the company to monetize its
service more aggressively. It recently unveiled a new plan to grow its user
base – and mobile revenue – by expanding the reach of its mobile messenger app,
whose features include free texting, group chat, and photo-sharing. All thse
initiatives are helping Facebook move forward on the revenue growth path. The
company’s reported sales for Q3, whose results were announced in October, stood
at $1.26 billion, up 32% from a year earlier
Can monte carlobeat the
johnny-come-latelys?
The
pioneer knitwear brand in the country has moved on to straddle other apparel
segments catering to women, youth and kids' wear as it seeks to transform
itself into a complete solutions provider for all our clothing needs. but can
monte carlo beat the johnny-come-latelys?
Monte
Carlo, the Rs.850-crore brand owned by the Ludhiana-based Nahar Group, has been
markedly aggressive in the Indian apparel market recently. Earlier this year,
the group, known mainly for its strong presence in the woollens segment,
entered the kids’ wear category, currently worth Rs.38,000 crore and growing at
an annual growth rate of 11%, according to retail consultancy Technopak. But
winter wear still accounts for almost 75% of the company’s total sales, which
stood at Rs.400 crore for the year ended March 31, 2012. Now, the company is
aiming to change the ratio and take its share of non-woollen wear to 50% in the
next five years
Mahindra plans to launch 'Mojo' next fiscal
Domestic auto maker Mahindra &
Mahindra plans to launch its 300 cc bike 'Mojo' next fiscal and said it will
also roll out variants of its scooter series.
"We are going through
testing protocols right now for the engine. We are hopeful of its launch in the
next fiscal," president of two-wheeler sector and member of the group
executive board, Mahindra & Mahindra, Anoop Mathur, said here after the
preview of 110CC bikes.
The company is taking all
possible steps to make sure that the engine, vehicle and composite are duly
tested and validated before it hits the road, he said.
Mahindra 2 Wheelers also plans
to roll out a new model of its scooters portfolio by third quarter of next
fiscal, Mathur said adding within the next fortnight, a variant of 'Rodeo'
scooter is set to be launched.
"We want our presence
across segments and ranges. Our plan is to come out with new models of scooters
and motor cycle at frequent intervals over the next three to five years,"
Mathur said.
The company, which has forayed
into 110 cc motorcycle segment with the unveiling of two models, 'Pantero' and
'Centuro' last Friday, is working on the bikes exports, which could commence
before March, 2013.
"It is our strategic plan
to have a significant presence in the motor cycle exports market. We hope to
start shipping out our bikes within this fiscal," Mathur said.
Pune and powered by the Mci-5
engine manufactured at the company's Pithampur facility in Madhya Pradesh.
The company has invested Rs
100 crore in the research and development of the products.
Yahoo Mail rebooted
The
redesigned Yahoo Mail gives users faster and smoother email services on PC and
mobile devices. Can the internet company claw back the market share it is
losing out to Google?
Five months after Marissa
Mayer became the CEO of Yahoo, the internet company has gone for a product
makeover of its webmail, the first big move under the new regime. While this
revamp has made the mail faster and intuitive, the key challenge is to claw
back the market share it is losing out to internet giant Google’s Gmail.
The situation has been
accentuated as mails have become more on the go after the smartphone
revolution. Google’s operating software, Android is the most popular OS with
75% of the current smartphones sold using it. Google products like Gmail and
the integrated Gtalk have an inherent advantage as they come pre-installed in
these devices.
The company has simultaneously launched apps
for Android and Apple phones, while the BlackBerry and Windows phone apps were
missing. Windows app is available for PCs and tablets.
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