The Signal - SoftBank pulls a one-eighty
SoftBank pulls a one-eightyAlso in today’s edition: Climate change comes for dal-chawal; Hospitality is flying high; Walmart hops on the streaming bandwagon; Microsoft to join ONDCGood morning! The curtains may finally be up on the century-old British India Corporation (BICL), which manufactured woollen products under the Dhariwal and Lal-imli brands. BICL was nationalised in 1981, but it couldn’t keep its head above water. NITI Aayog suggested its closure after several unsuccessful revival schemes. If you enjoy reading us, why not give us a follow at @thesignaldotco on Twitter and Instagram. The Market Signal Stocks: Domestic benchmark indices ended flat on Wednesday ahead of the latest US inflation data report. Metal stocks gained. Delhivery shares slumped 6% after its Q1 loss widened. Early Asia: The SGX Nifty climbed 1.15% at 7.30 am India time. The Hang Seng Index (1.18%) was also trading in the positive territory. Nikkei 225 dived (-0.65%). FARM & FOODIdli-Sambar, Dal-Chawal Will Be Tough To ChewStaple foods across India have become more expensive as prices of pulses have risen by 15% in less than half a year. The prices are likely to go up even more as fewer farmers are cultivating them in the current season. Government sowing data shows land growing tur dal has shrunk by 4.6% compared to the previous year, and that under rice has shrunk by 13%. Climate change: Blame it on the weather. The largest rice-growing areas of eastern India have not had enough rainfall. While rice-growers were hit by drought, pulses crop in thousands of farms in central and western India were submerged by excess rain. Low rice production in India will also push up international prices as it has a 40% global market share. E-COMMERCERedmond Hops Aboard ONDCMicrosoft has become the first global tech major to join the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), which will unify digital commerce platforms and logistics providers. The company will also launch an ecommerce app in India by late 2022. Details: …are scant. All Microsoft has revealed is that its app will “introduce a new consumer app experience in the social commerce space”. This space is currently dominated by Meesho, Flipkart’s Shopsy, and DealShare, and a glut of shortform video apps vying to compete in the world’s fastest-growing social commerce market (even Google-owned YouTube acquired SimSim last year). With ONDC, however, Microsoft may focus on growing Dynamics 365 Commerce, its Shopify-inspired business suite for retailers. It runs on the Azure cloud computing platform, which has long competed with Amazon Web Services for US and UK retail clients. VENTURE CAPITALSon Takes A U-turnSoftBank’s disastrous quarterly loss of $23.4 billion is pushing Masayoshi Son to consider taking the company private—something the founder had always rejected. Brakes: The group’s flagship Vision Fund alone lost more than $17 billion due to a global tech rout, pushing the company towards layoffs. SoftBank also lost $6 billion in foreign exchange due to a weaker yen. The situation didn’t improve even after $10 billion worth of buybacks. Selloffs: SoftBank is cutting stakes in FirstCry, SoFi Technologies, Alibaba and Uber in an attempt to scale back investments. It also plans to sell units such as Fortress Investment Group to pay more attention to the Vision Fund.
EARNINGSWanderlust Boosts Industry GrowthThe travel bug has returned in a big way, much to the relief of the hospitality sector. Indian hotels and restaurants are counting their greens as folks can’t wait to GTFO. Literally. Check-in: Tata Group-backed Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) had the “best fiscal first quarter” in its history. Oberoi's flagship company EIH Limited and Lemon Tree Hotels also saw a rise in revenues. Anjan Chatterjee's Speciality Restaurants—which runs Mainland China, Asia Kitchen by Mainland China, Oh! Calcutta and Sigree-Global Grill—posted a profit of about ₹15 crore. Overseas, Hyatt Hotels, Marriott, and Hilton posted strong earnings. Airbnb had also witnessed record bookings in the last quarter. Hear hear: Business travel, corporate off-sites, and summer holidays spurred demand. The best is yet to come, with long weekends and festivals expected to drive revenues ahead. Elsewhere: OYO has snapped up Danish holiday home operator Bornholmske Feriehuse. STREAMINGWalmart’s Streaming HustleWalmart is taking steps to draw more customers to its membership programme. The retail giant is in discussions with Paramount, Disney and Comcast about bundling their streaming content in Walmart+. Rationale: A $12.95 monthly Walmart+ membership comes with free delivery, fuel discounts and a six-month subscription to Spotify Premium. By adding video streaming, it’s now competing harder for value against Amazon’s Prime membership programme. Precedents: In 2010, Walmart had acquired on-demand video platform Vudu, which it sold two years ago to prioritise retail. Flipkart also took the streaming plunge in 2019 with Flipkart Video. Japanese retailer Rakuten runs the streaming app, Viki. Flipside: HBO Max is deferring its India launch until 2024. Would-be head of content Saugata Mukherjee has already left, leaving the local team in a lurch. Meanwhile, Disney+ added 14 million subscribers globally to reach 152.1 million. But it has lowered its long-term subscriber forecast for 2024. 🎧 Walmart has streaming ambitions to take on Amazon Prime. FYINewer frontiers: TikTok-parent ByteDance has acquired one of China’s largest private hospital chains, Amcare Healthcare, for about $1.5 billion. It also rebranded its Chinese unit to Beijing Douyin Information Services. Cap off: The Indian government will remove pandemic-era fare caps on domestic airline prices from August 31 as the aviation sector heads towards recovery. Relief: The worm wriggling up the US inflation graph slowed down in July as fuel prices eased. But the average rate of price rise remains near its 40-year high. Prep mode: Elon Musk sold about $7 billion worth of Tesla stocks last week to shore up his finances should he be forced to go through with the $44 billion Twitter acquisition. Twitter shares rose 4%. Double whammy: After his Mar-a-Lago residence was raided by the FBI, former US president Donald Trump will testify in a New York investigation into the Trump Organisation’s business practices. Fallout: Trading volumes on WazirX, India’s largest crypto exchange, tanked 54% after an ED crackdown and ownership spat with Binance. FWIWWall of fame: Breaking Bad's Heisenberg is a Nobel prize-winning physicist. So believes a school in Punjab, which showcased protagonist Bryan Cranston instead of scientist Werner Heisenberg, who co-pioneered the theory of quantum mechanics. The actor shared space with scientists such as Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton. We wonder what the makers think of this. Ciao, Domino’s: Italians still prefer their traditional pizza over the American variant. Domino’s, which had plans for 880 stores in the country, was forced to shut down its existing 29 branches. The home-delivery tactic didn't work either as traditional pizza makers partnered with third-party services for delivery. Enjoy The Signal? Consider forwarding it to a friend, colleague, classmate or whoever you think might be interested. They can sign up here. Want to advertise with us? We’d love to hear from you. Write to us here for feedback on The Signal. If you liked this post from The Signal, why not share it? |
Older messages
Samsung’s iPhone scorcher
Friday, August 12, 2022
Also in today's edition: White labels save Indian retail; Setback for digital lenders; Hulu comes to Disney's rescue; SL walks tightrope between India and China
Tesla, the data hoarder
Tuesday, August 9, 2022
Also in today's edition: India builds a walled garden; Mobile may save gaming; Warner Bros. bets on TV; MBA paychecks aren't all that anymore
Who owns WazirX?
Monday, August 8, 2022
Also in today's edition: Amazon sucks up Roomba; Food delivery cos see green; RBI keeps up with rate hikes; Berkshire Hathaway's earnings are a mixed bag
The eagle-dragon face-off
Saturday, August 6, 2022
The US and China are locked in a competition for global influence, short of a war
The rot inside Apple
Friday, August 5, 2022
Also in today's edition: Pixar's Disney+ problem; Consumers hang up on Chinese smartphones; Data makes Indian legislation go round; Countdown to RBI's rate hike
You Might Also Like
Binance Refutes Market Manipulation Allegations
Friday, May 10, 2024
Plus Prometheum Exchange Launch Stalled
ENDS TONIGHT: 12 weeks for the price of 6
Friday, May 10, 2024
Unlock an edge for media and marketing leaders
Instagram Strategies
Friday, May 10, 2024
Today's Guide to the Marketing Jungle from Social Media Examiner... Presented by Social Media Marketing World logo It's 🥳 National Small Business Day, Reader! You are why we do what we do… In
No Web Without Women, Music vs. Lyrics and Why Good Taste Has Diminishing Returns Today
Friday, May 10, 2024
Ten stories that have given us creative inspiration this week
Prediction Markets Say No Recession Is Coming
Friday, May 10, 2024
Listen now (2 mins) | To investors, There was more than a 70% chance of a recession occurring in 2023, according to Kalshi prediction markets in July 2023. Not only did the recession never come, but
Weekly Dose of Optimism #93
Friday, May 10, 2024
AlphaFold 3, CRISPR Eyes, Ear Genes, MDMA, Societal Collapse ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
2.4 million pageviews a month for what!? 🤯
Friday, May 10, 2024
Display Ad Daily officially launched about 3 months ago now. For those of you that haven't checked it out yet, it's an extremely simple, free report that shows sites that were recently
Influence Weekly #333 - Creators Cash In: Paid User-Generated Content Offering Explodes 93% In 2023
Friday, May 10, 2024
How Google, Meta, Snapchat and TikTok are attempting to eclipse each other
VC fundraising's split forecast
Friday, May 10, 2024
VC dealmaking levels out for gaming; how specialist VCs drive information security; are we in the eye of a golden vintage year? Read online | Don't want to receive these emails? Manage your
How India’s B2B brands swarmed the IPL
Friday, May 10, 2024
One team partnership at a time ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏