M & A wrap: Sony going solo?
Sony is in talks to buy out Ericsson’s stake in their mobile phone joint venture, a source said, in a bid to catch up with rivals.
Belgium’s federal government and its regions clashed over the fate of the Belgian banking activities of stricken Dexia, delaying a joint Franco-Belgian rescue of the group.
Bloomberg digs into the changing value of the Deutsche Boerse-NYSE merger and the potential return for investors.
“French and Belgian bank stocks have crashed and the bond yields of Greece, Italy and Portugal may be peaking. Now hedge funds and bond vigilantes have begun to zero in on Hungary as the fashionable European country to bet against,” reports the NYT.
Foreign brokers set to buy Japanese stocks
Japanese Stocks:BUY 20.1 million sharesSELL 11.5 million shares
—————————————————————————BUY 8.6 million shares
REFILE-UPDATE 2-Infosys Q2 profit up, cuts revenue outlook
* Trims full year dollar revenue growth to 17.1-19.1 percent* Shares rise nearly 6 percent* Infosys warns about global macroeconomic uncertaintyBy Sayantani GhoshBANGALORE, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Infosys Ltd , India’s
No.2 software services exporter, reported a 9.7-percent rise in
quarterly profit and cut its full-year revenue outlook by
less-than-expected, cheering investors who shrugged off its
warning about global economic uncertainty.Kicking off results for India’s nearly $76 billion IT
sector, shares in Infosys rose 6 percent on Wednesday to their
highest level in more than two months, outperforming the broader
market .The company, which counts Goldman Sachs , BT Group
and BP among its main clients, trimmed its dollar
revenue growth forecast to 17.1 percent to 19.1 percent for the
fiscal year, from 18 percent to 20 percent projected earlier.”The dollar revenue guidance cut is due to a cut in
discretionary spending by clients. But it was modest compared
with what people had expected,” said Jagannadham Thunuguntla,
research head at SMC Global Securities.He said analysts had expected Infosys to slash its dollar
revenue outlook by 4 to 5 percentage points.By 0500 GMT, Infosys shares were trading at 2,646 rupees a
share, up 5.7 percent.Infosys Chief Financial Officer V. Balakrishnan said the
reduction in the forecast was mainly due to currency volatility.India’s IT sector, which feeds off increased outsourcing by
companies looking to cut costs, is expected to face pricing
pressure and a decline in new orders as Europe struggles with a
debt crisis and the United States sees an economic slowdown.Infosys and domestic rivals Tata Consultancy Services
and Wipro also face stiff competition
from global players including IBM and Accenture
for large outsourcing deals.More than half of Bangalore-based Infosys’ revenue is
generated in the United States. Europe is its second largest
market, accounting for 20.5 percent of its revenue in the second
quarter, down from 21.8 percent a year ago.UNCERTAINTY”The global macroeconomic environment is still uncertain. It
is and should be a concern for the IT industry,” S.D. Shibulal,
chief executive officer of Infosys, said in a statement.Nasdaq-listed Infosys said consolidated net profit
rose to 19.06 billion rupees ($387 million) for the fiscal
second quarter ended Sept. 30, from 17.37 billion rupees
reported a year ago, as a weaker rupee boosted results.Revenue rose 16.6 percent to 81 billion rupees as the
company added 45 clients in the quarter.A Reuters poll of brokerages had forecast a profit of 18.9
billion rupees on revenue of 81.2 billion rupees for the
company.”The results have been helped partly by the depreciation in
the rupee. The main thing to watch out for will be how the U.S.
and Europe will move in the coming months,” said R.K. Gupta,
Managing Director at Taurus Asset Management.”But Indian IT companies and Infosys in particular have a
cost advantage over their global peers. I am not very
pessimistic on these companies,” he said.Infosys, worth about $29 billion, has lost more than a
quarter of its market value this year, roughly in line with a 25
percent fall in the sector index , but outperforming a
19 percent decline in the Mumbai market index.The company expects its dollar revenue to rise to $7.08
billion to $7.2 billion in the fiscal year ending March 2012.
Starbucks, coffee shops see collateral benefit from Black Friday
Black Friday bargain hunting is a marathon, requiring a shopper to be alert and aggressive to outmaneuver rivals for that last $200 LCD TV at Target. But with so many retailers opening their doors at midnight, why bother going to sleep? Even if you shopped at Kohl’s, which opened at 3 am or J.C. Penney, at 4 am, you were in for very short night for most.
So bleary-eyed shoppers turned out in drove at U.S. malls on Friday, with lines at coffee shops among the longest.
Mall operator Macerich said on Friday that the Starbucks at its Tysons Corner Center in suburban Washington had lines 30 people deep at 11 a.m. At the Newport Center mall in Jersey City, exhausted shoppers could be seen forming a line of 20 to get much needed java.
After all, no one wants to be caught unawares when cashmere sweaters for 50 percent off are at stake.
(Reuters photo)
