Soota, other Wiproites to form e-com start-up venture
Bangalore: Ashok Soota, who has left Wipro to be part of a start-up venture, is all set to launch an e-commmerce and telecom software solutions company with a core Wipro alumni team and finance from such venture capital funds such as Walden International.

Mr Soota is joined by Wiproites N.K. Krishnakumar, chief executive officer, cross industry solutions, N.S. Parthasarathy, head of Lucent Development Centre at Wipro, and Kalyan Banerjee, HR manager, technology solutions division, Wipro. Subroto Bagchi, another Wipro old-timer and now with Lucent Technologies India, is also joining the new venture.

There will be four other founders for the start-up, three now based in the US and another working with a multinational firm in India. Mr Soota will be chairman of the yet-to-be-named company, Mr Bagchi will be the chief executive officer and Mr Krishnakumar will look after worldwide operations and the e-com division.

An ex-Wipro man Sudhir Sethi heads Walden International.
Back to News Review index page

Indian launches novel voice mail service
Saratoga, California: Maharashtra-born Vishwas Godbole, an Indian expatriate, has launched a new voice mail company which will allow subscribers for as little as $10 a month to  exchange voice messages with relatives in India by making a local call.

Godbole's Navin.com, the voice mail company, provides a global phone message system, NavinMail, that is as easy to use as making a phone call.

NavinMail internet servers in India and the US do all the work by compressing the voice data and transmitting it to servers at the destination for the process to be reversed. A subscriber in the US can sponsor his relatives and friends in India as users of the services. The users do not have to pay anything. They can also combine other relatives and friends on the US subscriber's phone tree so that they can communicate with each other throughout India via local calls.
Back to News Review index page

Gary Jackson heads Cisco unit
Sydney: Cisco Systems said it has appointed Gary Jackson as director of its service provider business in the Asia-Pacific region. Jackson is moving from his post as managing director for Australia and New Zealand operations to Singapore, where he will be responsible for services to telecommunications companies and internet service providers.
Back to News Review index page

Merrill Lynch retires Allison
New York: Merrill Lynch and Co said its president and chief operating officer Herbert Allison is retiring.

Merrill said in a statement that it would name an immediate replacement for Allison, 55, who was largely seen as the heir-apparent to Merrill chief executive David Komansky, 60.

Vice chairman John "Launny" Steiffens, who heads the firm's brokerage arm, and vice chairman Stephen Hammerman will assume additional responsibilities.

Allison has worked for Merrill for 28 years.
Back to News Review index page