Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Yahoo replaces Google as Firefox's default search engine

AP Yahoo plans to unveil a “clean and modern” search engine on Firefox next month.

Yahoo will supplant Google’s search engine on Firefox’s Web browser in the U.S., signalling Yahoo’s resolve to regain some of the ground that it has lost in the most lucrative part of the Internet’s ad market.

The five-year alliance announced on Wednesday will end a decade-old partnership in the U.S. between Google Inc. and the Mozilla Foundation, which oversees the Firefox browser. The tensions between Google and Mozilla had been rising since Google’s introduction of the Chrome browser in 2008 began to undercut Firefox. Google’s current contract with Mozilla expires at the end of this month, opening an opportunity for Yahoo to pounce.

Even though Chrome is now more widely used, Firefox still has a loyal audience that makes more than 100 billion worldwide search requests annually.

Yahoo is hoping to impress Firefox users as the Sunnyvale-based company sets out to prove that it’s still adept at Internet search after leaning on Microsoft’s technology for most of the results on Yahoo’s own website for the past four years.

Financial details of Yahoo’s Firefox contract weren’t disclosed. In a blog post, Mozilla CEO Chris Beard said the new deal offers “strong, improved economic terms” while allowing Mozilla “to innovate and advance our mission in ways that best serve our users and the Web.”

Google accounted for 90 per cent, or about $274 million, of Mozilla’s royalty revenue in 2012. Mozilla hasn’t released its annual report for last year.

Besides dropping Google in the U.S., Mozilla is also shifting Firefox to Baidu’s search engine in China and Yandex in Russia. Firefox users still have the option to pull down a tab to pick Google and other search engines as their preferred way for looking up information online.

Yahoo Inc. CEO Marissa Mayer, a former Google executive, hailed the Firefox agreement as Yahoo’s most significant partnership since forging the Microsoft deal in 2009.

“We believe deeply in search it’s an area of investment and opportunity for us,” Ms. Mayer wrote in a Wednesday blog post.

Yahoo plans to unveil a “clean and modern” search engine on Firefox next month and then roll out the new model on its own website early next year, Ms. Mayer wrote.

The redesign will primarily affect how Yahoo’s search engine’s results are displayed, and not the way that requests are processed. The search technology will continue to be provided by Microsoft Corp. as part of a 10-year deal Yahoo signed in 2009, according to Mel Guymon, Yahoo’s vice president of search.

In various public remarks since becoming Yahoo’s CEO two years ago, Ms. Mayer has expressed disappointment with Microsoft’s search technology. That has spurred speculation that she might renegotiate or end the Microsoft search partnership next year when Yahoo has an option to re-evaluate the deal. Yahoo currently receives $88 of every $100 in revenue generated from ads posted alongside the search results on its website.

Those payouts have helped Yahoo boost its revenue from search advertising for 11 consecutive quarters, compared with the previous year. Despite those gains, more searches have been shifting to Microsoft’s Bing search engine, causing Yahoo to slip further behind its rivals. Yahoo is expected to end this year with a 5.6 per cent share of U.S. search advertising revenue, down from 6.6 per cent in 2012, according to the research firm eMarketer.

RAJ KISHORE SHARMA
PGDM 3RD SEM

COMMENT; Its a great oppurinity for yahoo

BJP, AAP modify poll strategy in bid to secure majority in Delhi

New Delhi: The rivalry between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) at the assembly elections in Delhi could boil down to a bitter tussle for a handful of seats, including some key marginals. BJP is targeting eight marginal constituencies it had lost to AAP the last time around by only 300-2,500 votes. And the AAP, for the first time, is focusing its campaign on 10 semi-urban constituencies, where the party fared badly in the December 2013 assembly elections. The AAP had won only two of those seats and the BJP, seven. There are 70 seats in the assembly. A large section of AAP leaders fear that middle-class voters in Delhi may ditch the party in the elections, dates for which are yet to be announced, and instead vote for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP. The AAP leaders say that in such a scenario, if the party is able to win more seats in the semi-urban—also known as rural-urban or rurban—constituencies, it will be able to make up for any losses in urban parts of the city-state.

The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which had won 32 seats in the last assembly elections, believes that the party must win Delhi Cantonment, Vikaspuri, Sangam Vihar, Sadar Bazaar and Madipur, where BJP candidates lost by a narrow margin of 355 votes, 405 votes, 777 votes, 796 votes and 1,104 votes respectively to the AAP.

“These are seats which will automatically come to us because of the momentum in favour of BJP because of Modi. The party will work hard to win these seats and we expect that results of these seats will be in BJP’s favour this time,” said Sanjay Kaul, Delhi BJP spokesperson.

BJP leaders indicated that if the party is able to win these five seats, plus with Shalimar Bagh and Shakur Basti, which are traditional strongholds of the party, it will be able to form a government on its own. The BJP had lost both these seats to AAP last year. “The real problem for the BJP is in the seats which used to be our strongholds, but we have lost those seats with huge margins. The seat of Greater Kailash is one such seat which the party lost although it should’ve never lost the seat. The party leadership will have to take some steps to be able to win the seat back,” Kaul said. Among its other strongholds which the BJP is hoping to regain are Chandni Chowk and Model Town. “We have not won these two seats in the previous two elections. These used to be our stronger seats and BJP must work towards winning them,” said a senior BJP leader from Delhi

As Delhi awaits announcement of elections dates, AAP is planning to take the battle to its far bigger rival by targeting the rural constituencies, which were won by the BJP. Out of 10 such constituencies in the 70-seat assembly, the AAP managed to secure just two—Burari and Laxmi Nagar—while the BJP won seven

“We did not do very well in these areas in the last Vidhan Sabha elections and the parliamentary elections as well. Therefore, in a sense, the imperative of politics invites us to go discover issues in those areas which are genuine issues,” said party spokesperson Yogendra Yadav.

Its recently launched Delhi Dialogue campaign, therefore, will have a special focus on the rural areas, spearheaded by a committee led by Naveen Jaihind, who contested the Lok Sabha elections from Rohtak. The role of this committee is to create an organization and connect with the people in rural constituencies. “We realize that the middle class in Delhi is discouraged by our party. While we continue to improve that, we will be focusing on rural constituencies. We didn’t perform well in these constituencies in the previous assembly and Lok Sabha elections,” said a senior leader of the party who did not wish to be named. In the previous assembly elections, the party failed to make a dent in the rural constituencies.

onika jaiswal

pgdm 2nd year

COMMENT:-

AAM AADMI of Delhi certainly won't forget that AAP had followed its manifesto ward by ward as the gentleman's agreement by cracking down the corruption to minimum, reducing electricity and water bills and ordered an audit against the unjust charges, worked for the shelter for the homeless, streamlined admission in primary schools without donations, ending of vip culture, set SIT to review the cases of violence against the Sikh community in the 1984 riots, Swaraj Bill was all set to be brought forward in the Delhi Assembly session along with JanLokpal BILL................

On that very moment crony politicians backed by their nasty capitalists friends got frightened and opposed Jan Lokpal BILL in the Assembly though just tabling any Bill for discussion was never unconstitutional. That is only because of the matter of the fact is, in the satchel of JAN LOKPAL BILL and actual GOOD GOVERNANCE, where rewards or compensations for any good cause or sacrifice, and punishments where any crime occurs by rolling some heads will be exercised in a very precise and unbiased manner, there is a CAT of which all the RATS fears.

The real problem for the BJP was in 2013, the seats which used to be our strongholds, the elite and educated group, where they had lost those seats with huge margins such as Greater Kailash because those people understands AAP better as they are educated. On the other hand AAM AADMI , the poorer section, knows very well that what empathy they are missing after AAP left the government and what they are facing now in LG-BJP regime.....................................

THAT'S WHY, WHATEVER MAY BE STRATEGY OF BJP FOR THE NEXT ELECTION, IT WILL BE FACING THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO AT DELHI................

Vikram Pandit, JM Financial to invest Rs900 crore in real estate NBFC

A file photo of Vikram Pandit. JM Financial had announced an association with Pandit in May 2013. Photo: Bloomberg Bengaluru/Mumbai: Vikram Pandit, former chief executive officer of Citigroup Inc., and Mumbai-based JM Financial Ltd are investing Rs.900 crore in the latter’s real estate-focused non-banking financial company (NBFC), said three people familiar with the development. “We already have a licence for a real estate NBFC and in this existing NBFC, Vikram Pandit’s fund will invest about Rs.540 crore for a 50% stake. JM Financial will invest about Rs.360 crore in the venture,” a top JM Financial executive said on condition of anonymity. “We have not hired anyone new to head the NBFC. The existing team at JM will be running the NBFC,”

he added. The deal closed recently. In May 2013, JM Financial announced an association with Pandit, where the latter would be appointed non-executive chairman of the financial services firm that was then planning an entry into banking. Pandit and his business partner Hari Aiyar were also said to be acquiring a 3% equity stake in JM Financial through an issue of warrants, and the former was also reported to be buying an undisclosed stake in the NBFC. Pandit, who is currently chairman of TGG Group, didn’t respond to an emailed query seeking comment. TGG Group, which has offices in New York, Chicago and London, is a consulting firm that relies on behavioural science and data analysis. It also runs a specialized practice for non-profit businesses, called the Greatest Good, and TGG Ventures, an idea incubator for the group.

“Vikram Pandit has raised capital from a couple of LPs (limited partners) very recently, and this money has been pumped into his offshore fund vehicle through which this investment has been made,” said a second person who also asked not to be identified. JM Financial was one of the 25 applicants for a banking licence last year. In April, this year, the Reserve Bank of India granted licences only to two, IDFC Ltd and Bandhan Financial Services Pvt. Ltd. JM Financial has interests in investment banking, institutional equity sales, trading, research and broking, private and corporate wealth management, equity broking, non-banking financial products, and private equity. It has substantial exposure to the real estate sector through JM Financial Products Ltd. There is also the JM Financial Property Fund, which raised around Rs.400 crore in 2007-08 to invest in residential, hospitality and mixed-use projects. NBFCs are among the most active lenders to the real estate sector today, as developers continue to raise debt even as demand lags. JM Financial intends to rapidly expand its NBFC lending book to around Rs.2,500 crore by 2015, said the second person. “NBFC lending is very relevant for developers who need early-stage funding, where approvals may have come in and the project needs to start. Being high-cost debt, NBFCs also take more risk while investing in projects,” said Neeraj Bansal, partner and head of real estate and construction practice at consulting firm KPMG’s India unit. NBFCs are also seeing enormous opportunities in the current real estate market, where demand for capital is big.

Property analysts said that since they mostly don’t monitor the end-use of capital, developers liberally use it for a variety of reasons, including refinancing of earlier loans. NBFC interest rates typically vary between 17% and 22%. Certain NBFCs and private equity funds have started looking at real estate investments and are structuring transactions with heavily leveraged developers at discounted rates, with a view to re-sell strata (smaller) units at a premium, said Ravi Ahuja, executive director at property advisory Cushman and Wakefield India. “By underwriting such projects at approximately 15-20% discount to prevailing prices, NBFC expectations are to achieve much higher returns than what the debt market currently offers,” he said. madhurima.n@livemint.com Joel Rebello in Mumbai contributed to this story.

MUNTAZIR ALAM

PGDM 3RD SEM

COMMENT-

JM Financial Ltd are investing Rs.900 crore in the latter’s real estate-focused non-banking financial company (NBFC), said three people familiar with the development. “We already have a licence for a real estate NBFC and in this existing NBFC, Vikram Pandit’s fund will invest about Rs.540 crore for a 50% stake

Ranbaxy loses bid to block rivals in generic drugs fight

Ranbaxy wanted the order to prevent competitors Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd and the US unit of Dublin-based Endo International from moving ahead with marketing their generic versions of the compounds while its complaint was heard. Photo: Pradeep Gaur/Mint Washington: Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd lost a bid for a temporary court order to block rivals’ generic versions of the heartburn pill Nexium and the antiviral drug Valcyte.

Ranbaxy sought the order in a lawsuit against the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over the agency’s revocation of tentative approval for the company to make its own generic versions of the drugs. The FDA revocation wrongfully punishes Ranbaxy for manufacturing deficiencies found at two Indian facilities in 2006 and 2008, blocking “hundreds of millions of dollars in anticipated revenue,” the company said in aRanbaxy wanted the order to prevent competitors Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd and the US unit of Dublin-based Endo International from moving ahead with marketing their generic versions of the compounds while its complaint was heard. Photo:

Pradeep Gaur/Mint Washington: Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd lost a bid for a temporary court order to block rivals’ generic versions of the heartburn pill Nexium and the antiviral drug Valcyte. Ranbaxy sought the order in a lawsuit against the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over the agency’s revocation of tentative approval for the company to make its own generic versions of the drugs. The FDA revocation wrongfully punishes Ranbaxy for manufacturing deficiencies found at two Indian facilities in 2006 and 2008, blocking “hundreds of millions of dollars in anticipated revenue,” the company said in a complaint filed on 14 November in federal court in Washington.

Ranbaxy, based in Gurgaon, wanted the order to prevent competitors Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd and the US unit of Dublin-based Endo International Plc from moving ahead with marketing their generic versions of the compounds while its complaint was heard. US district judge Beryl Howell on Thursday declined to restrain Endo and Dr. Reddy’s and gave Ranbaxy and the FDA until 21 November to propose a schedule for further proceedings. A Ranbaxy representative in Gurgaon didn’t immediately respond to an email before regular business hours seeking comment on the ruling.

complaint filed on 14 November in federal court in Washington. Ranbaxy, based in Gurgaon, wanted the order to prevent competitors Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd and the US unit of Dublin-based Endo International Plc from moving ahead with marketing their generic versions of the compounds while its complaint was heard. US district judge Beryl Howell on Thursday declined to restrain Endo and Dr. Reddy’s and gave Ranbaxy and the FDA until 21 November to propose a schedule for further proceedings. A Ranbaxy representative in Gurgaon didn’t immediately respond to an email before regular business hours seeking comment on the ruling. Bloomberg.

PRAVEEN SHARMA