AV Birla company, Lawson sign MoU
Mumbai: The A V Birla group has signed a memorandum of understanding with a US-based $270 million software company, Lawson Software, under which a group company, Birla Consultancy and Software Services, will market and implement Lawson’s products in the Asia-Pacific region to begin with. The MoU also covers setting up a Lawson Competency Centre to oversee the operations and offer support service to Lawson’s subsidiaries, affiliates and clients in the region. The area of operations may at a later date be extended to a global level.

Lawson Software has a product that helps companies streamline their operations. Its six suites cover areas like finance, procurement, human resources, performance indicators, enterprise budgeting, and supply chain management.

The alliance is expected to deliver e-business applications and advanced technologies in B2B and B2C areas. Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of the group, said Birla Consultancy and Software Services, a Rs 30-crore division within Grasim, could be spun off into a separate company when it attains critical business volume.
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Power Finance Corporation plans share buyback
New Delhi: Power Finance Corporation has decided to buy back 20 per cent of its shares at a cost of Rs 577 crore. The company wants to take advantage of its favourable debt-equity ratio (1.86:1) and a large equity base. The corporation’s chairman Udesh Kohli says the buyback will take place in 1999-2000. The proposal will help it get a better image with higher dividends and higher profitability, he added.
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GNFC, Konee group in tie-up
Mumbai: Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertiliser Company (GNFC) has tied up with the Konee Bio-Medical group of Ahmedabad for ventures in telemedicine and software development. The company will collaborate with Indo Computech Software-Hardware Systems of the group for software development and with Konee Meditech, another company of the group for the telemedicine venture. GNFC is a diversified company with annual sales of Rs 1,150 crore.
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Motorola develops new cell phone technology
New Delhi: Motorola India is developing a single cell wireless access manager technology, a low cost 'code division multiple access' wireless in local loop technology, for the Indian market. The technology may be introduced worldwide at a later date.

A cellular network requires a base station (or cell), a wireless access manager, and a switch as basic building blocks. The cost per subscriber for a 30,000-subscriber network is around $300, but this cost may be higher if the subscriber base is low. A single cell wireless access manager merges the base station with the wireless access manager. The cell can be designed to serve a group of 200 to 500 subscribers. This can bring down the cost by about 30 to 40 per cent.

The new technology will make it viable for phone companies to launch cellular networks in small towns and villages with a limited customer potential.
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Basu’s TV company set for launch
Calcutta: Broadcast Worldwide, a television entertainment company promoted by ex-Star TV’s India CEO Rathikant Basu, is set for launch early next financial year. Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch has a 10 per cent holding in the company through his NewsCorp. The company intends to set up four regional channels at a cost of Rs 120 crore. The 24-hour channels will be in the Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi and Punjabi languages. The company has signed an agreement with Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. for beaming its progammes via Intelsat.

Mr Basu is in talks with financial institutions like ICICI and the Industrial Development Bank of India for possible equity participation in the company.
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Ernst & Young India to set up100% arm
New Delhi: Ernst & Young Consulting India is setting up a 100 per cent subsidiary for consulting and other assignments from international clients in India. While the parent company will concentrate on the requirements of the domestic market, the wholly-owned subsidiary will focus on consulting and other related business from Ernst & Young's global clients.
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L&T, Sharp in JV?
Mumbai: Larsen & Toubro and Sharp Corporation of Japan are understood to have decided to join hands to set up a joint venture in India to make office equipment. L&T will spin off its electronic equipment division into a separate company in which Sharp Corporation will pick up equity -- as much as 74 per cent -- say sources.

This hiving off and joint venture is part of L&T's proposed restructuring. The joint venture will bring in the latest digital office equipment to India and provide total solutions for office automation. Sharp Corporation has another joint venture in India, Kalyani Sharp, a consumer electronics producer.
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Nickelodeon plans India feed
Mumbai: Global children’s network Nickelodeon is launching a separate feed for India. The company is impressed by the response it got from Indian viewers after its launch in India on 16 October 1999 and it has decided to go for a separate feed. The company estimates a viewership of nearly 4.5 million in the country. However, it will not immediately start regional language programmes.

Nickelodeon International has tied up with the Zee group for distribution.
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New power transmission software
Mumbai: Cyberspace Infosys has developed a new software package called Jove for use in the transmission and distribution of electricity. The product has been developed in alliance with Gassoumaye Consult of France. Apart from the power sector, the software has applications in the oil and gas and telecom sectors as well as in the laying of pipelines and cables, the company said.
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Kashyap Radiant sets up resources centre
Mumbai: Kashyap Radiant, a joint venture between Ram Kashyap Group India and Radiant Systems, has launched India’s largest e-commerce resource centre to train professionals. A. Venkataramani, managing director of Kashyap Radiant, says the centre, with an investment of Rs 5 crore, will offer courses on Internet security, Corba, and Java programming.
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Bank of America to pick up equity in Indian co
New Delhi: Bank of America has picked up a 33 per cent equity holding in an Indian infotech company Siri Karya Systems. The bank will first acquire a 26.67 per cent holding at a price of Rs 323 per share. The balance 6.66 per cent will be taken in July 2002. The acquisition will be through the bank’s Indian arm, Bank of America International Investment Corporation.
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Piaggio plans unit to be holding company
New Delhi: Italian scooter maker Piaggio has said that its proposed wholly-owned subsidiary in India will function as a holding company for all its India operations. The group intends to transfer its equity holdings in various Indian ventures – the three-wheeler joint venture with Greaves, and the equity it plans to have in Scooters India – to the wholly-owned subsidiary. Piaggio also wants the wholly-owned subsidiary to undertake manufacturing – especially of two-wheelers. The company has committed an initial investment of $45 million in the subsidiary.

The company's proposal for the wholly-owned subsidiary has not been cleared by the government.
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United Phosphorus wins case in China
Mumbai: United Phosphorus has won a court case in China against Hunan Leader, a Chinese government firm, and has been awarded $815,000. The company had filed the case as the Chinese company had failed to honour a contract to supply 400 tonnes of white phosphorus. United Phosphorus alleged that Hunan Leader encashed a letter of credit worth $615,200 using forged documents and collected the money without shipping the goods.
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JDS Uniphase to buy E-TEK
San Jose: JDS Uniphase Corporation, leading fibre optic equipment maker, is planning to take over rival E-TEK Dynamics in an all-stock deal of nearly $15 billion. Under an agreement reached between the two parties, E-TEK Dynamics will become a wholly-owned unit of JDS and its shareholders will get 1.1 shares of JDS for every E-TEK share held. The two companies have also signed a mutual supply deal to let them boost the supply of certain products.

Tesco gets Boston Consulting for M&S bid
London: British supermarket group Tesco is understood to have hired Boston Consulting Group to prepare a plan for the proposed $19.62 billion takeover of retail company Marks and Spencer. Entrepreneur Philip Green is another bidder for Marks & Spencer. Mr Green has already appointed Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette to advise him.
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