Accel India’s Prakash: ‘We Are Yet To See Slowdown In Business Plans We Receive’
Jerry Yang To Step Down As Soon As Yahoo Board Finds Replacement
Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) CEO Jerry Yang will step down from his post as soon as the board finds a suitable replacement, and BoomTown broke the story. The official release from Yahoo is out. Kara also has his full memo to the Yahoo team, in which Yang says he’ll participate in the search for his successor. Once the new CEO is in place, Yang will go back to his role as Chief Yahoo—and he will retain his seat on the board. Full story on paidContent.org… More coverage—including our poll—on Jerry Yang stepping down: — Poll: Who Should Be the Choice For Yahoo CEO Position? — Yahoo CEO Search: Some Possible Names: Miller, Chernin, Freston, Rosensweig and Others — Yahoo React: Analysts Expect Board To Get Aggressive On MSFT, AOL Deal — Yahoo CEO Search: Obama-Like Immediate Priorities — Yahoo And Yang’s Greatest Hits: History In Links Our streamlined mobile application for the BlackBerry and other smart devices brings you the latest headlines quickly on the go. Click here to download.
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Accel India Closes $60M Second Fund For Seed, Early Stage
There will be no significant shift in the investment strategy for the new fund. While there are almost all the funds targeting the late stage, growth capital investing and even PIPE ( private investments in public equity) investing, here is a VC fund which has raised capital to do seed and early stage investing. Accel India, formerly known as Erasmic Partners has closed a new $60 million seed and early stage fund. Accel believes that seed and early stage markets continue to be under served in India, attracting less than 5% of the total venture capital funds. There will not be a significant shift in the investment strategy of Accel, and it will continue with their highly engaged model to venture building. Accel India’s portfolio of companies includes DoveTail, HolidayIQ, Inbiopro, Kaati Zone, Kirusa, MuSigma, Myntra, Perfint, Sconce and Virident. “Accel India is pleased to have gained the support of our industry’s elite investors,” said Peter Wagner, Partner at Accel Partners. “The Accel India team is already functioning as a key element of our Accel global network, to the benefit of talented, passionate entrepreneurs in India and around the world.” “We have seen a significant increase in entrepreneurial activity in the last few years; many are first time entrepreneurs who find significant value in our team’s experience in hands-on company building beyond just the cash investment” said Subrata Mitra, Partner at Accel India. Accel India is managed by four partners: Mahendran Balachandran, Gagan Kumar, Subrata Mitra and Prashanth Prakash. This story has been provided by our content partner VCCircle
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Sync travel details with your calendar
It’s been some time since we made an iCalendar feed of your travel bookings available within your Cleartrip Account. Thanks to the open iCalendar format you can subscribe to your trips in your favourite calendaring program and keep track of travel details, timings along with all of your regular appointments and meetings–all in your favourite calendar application. We recently spent some time making sure that the travel calendar subscription works correctly with a variety of different calendar applications and are pretty happy with the results. We’ve tested this pretty extensively and it’s working well in all of our tests. For instructions on how to synchronise your trip calendar, use the appropriate link below: Subscribe to your trips through Google Calendar Subscribe to your trips through Apple iCal Subscribe to your trips through Microsoft Outlook Subscribing to your travel calendar is a one time activity–once you subscribe, your travel data will be automatically updated in your calendar application.
Source: blog.cleartrip.com
Better dropdown menus in forms
Myntra Raises $5 Million From NEA-IndoUS, IDG Ventures India
The customised gifts and merchandise space is hotting up as eYantra, a similar firm, recently raised $3.1 mn. Myntra Designs, a Bangalore-based company that provides customised gifts and merchandise, has raised $5 million in its Series A round of funding. The round is led by NEA-Indo US Ventures and IDG Ventures India, and Erasmic in it’s new avatar of Accel Partners is a returned backer. Erasmic merged with Silicon Valeey based Accel Partners earlier this year. The firm raised angel funding from Erasmic Venture Fund and other investors like Sasha Mirchandani of Mumbai Angels last year. Vani Kola from NEA Indo-US and Sudhir Sethi from IDG Ventures will join the board of Myntra. Another firm in this segment that recently raised funding was Hyderabad based eYantra, which raised $3.1 million in a Series A from Ventureast and Argonaut. Myntra is a website from where you can design your own T-shirts, mugs, key chains and other consumer products and then buy them. The firm plans ti use the funds raised for geographical and product portfolio expansion, and also expand its team. “We have identified products for both our individual and institutional market segment,” said Mukesh Bansal, CEO and Founder of Myntra. Myntra’s Expansions Plans The firm currently has a presence in Delhi and Bangalore, and plans to expand to top 10 cities in India over the course of next two years. The cities where it plans to have a presence in near future are Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad. “We plan to go to a new city every 3-6 months, and after 3-4 markets we plan a new city every quarter,” says Bansal. Myntra was formed in 2006, and it started with an online presence. Since then the firm has expanded to corporate and institutional clients. Now, two-thirds of its revenues come from institutional clients, while the rest come from individual online users. Currently Myntra has 20 products on offer for the online individual customers, while it has 50 products on offer for institutional clients. So far the it has served around 100 companies and 30 colleges, and it plans to use that experience to expand its product range. “We plan to have a more focused catalogue for every segment of the company and every occasion,” says Bansal. “This would lead to better offerings and better margins,” he adds. Myntra also plans to expand its team to 150 people from the present 50, and Bansal feels its a good time to hire talents. With the slowdown in the economy, good talents will be available at the reduced prices, he says. But isn’t Myntra feeling impact of the slowdown? “We are a very small company so it’s too early to feel the affect,” Bansal says. In fact, October was the best month for Myntra in terms of revenues, which were three times the monthly average of last three months. The company also recently crossed annual revenue of Rs 4 crore. But Bansal is in touch with reality and admits they are bound to feel the impact. “But we are not revising any of our forecasts for the next two years,” he adds. Merchandising Space Hots Up The fact that two companies in this space have got funding in a period 3-4 months says a lot about the opportunity that merchandising and on demand personalisation presents. Online photo printing companies also overlap into this space. Then there are also corporate gifting companies that are active in this segment. There are a number of photo printing firms that have raised venture capital funding. One of the oldest photo portals is ZoomIn, which is backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers and Sherpalo Ventures. Then there is also Printo, which has received funding from Sequoia Capital and Seed Fund. Bangalore-based Picsquare also recently went offline and received an undisclosed investment from city-based Bhola Digital Lab. Another portal is Banglore-based Canvera, which raised Series A funding in May this year from Footprint Ventures, and joined by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Mumbai Angels and a couple angels from the UK. This space has also seen some M&A activity, as Snapfish.com, a Hewlett & Packard-owned online photo printing site, acquired an Indian online photo printing website MeraSnap.com. This story was provided by our content partner VCCircle Our streamlined mobile application for the BlackBerry and other smart devices brings you the latest headlines quickly on the go. Click here to download.
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India TV Floats India TV Interactive, Ropes in Arvind Mahendru
Rajat Sharma’s India TV has floated a new media firm – India TV Interactive Pvt. Ltd. (ITVI). ITVI will be the vehicle for India TV to foray into various new media platforms and value-added services. Simultaneously, India TV has also appointed Arvind Mahendru as Senior VP (New Media). Mahendru who was earlier a Managing Partner with GroupM will report to Managing Director Ritu Dhawan here. He will be responsible for growing the group’s business on the internet, mobile, and interactive television platforms. He was earlier working with Bharti Airtel Limited (2005-07) as GM, Marketing where he headed content acquisition for broadcast TV, games and international film based content for VOD services for the IPTV, broadband, mobile and DTH platforms. Prior to Bharti, he worked as Chief Manager, Broadband, Times Internet Limited (India Times) where he was responsible for distribution, content planning and acquisition. He was in charge of the first ever IPTV Product pilot in India understanding consumer insights, product and consumer value propositions, and looked after the “8888″ short code service. India TV’s launch of ITVI is a part of the trend wherein media houses are diversifying and launching their content on new platforms including mobile, internet and IPTV so as to leverage the new set of users there and get maximum revenue out of their existing and new media content. Film production houses are even tying up with mobile content aggregators and games websites and mobile carriers for film related content distribution. Rajeev Shukla’s Bag Films is another media company that has ventured into the digital media domain, while established players like Network18 and NDTV have a significant presence in this domain. This story was provided by our content partner VCCircle
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Google Scholar
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Aggregated headlines and a search engine of many of the world’s news sources. continued .
Author : Return articles written by : e.g., “PJ Hayes” or McCarthy : Publication : Return articles published in : e.g., J Biol Chem or Nature : Date : Return articles published continued .
Google Finance offers a broad range of information about stocks, mutual funds, public and private companies. In addition, Google Finance offers interactive charts, news and continued .
The local version of this pre-eminent search engine, offering UK-specific pages as well as world results. continued .
Now you can connect to the web for free Google WiFi is a free wireless Internet service we’re offering to the city of Mountain View as part of our ongoing efforts to reach out to continued .
Subject: SNARKY Category: Reference, Education and News > General Reference Asked by: yesmam-ga List Price: $2.00: Posted: 04 Aug 2004 13:23 PDT Expires: 03 Sep 2004 13:23 PDT continued .
Explore flu trends across the U.S., including state-by-state graphs showing flu activity for the current flu season. continued .
多言語対応サーチエンジンの日本版。ウェブ、イメージおよびニュース検索、Usenet掲示板。 continued .
Use Google search within Gmail to find the exact message you want, no matter when it was sent or received. You don’t have to spend time sorting your email, just search for a continued .
Advertise on Google with AdWords: You can advertise your business on Google regardless of the size of your budget. Your ads appear on the right hand side of the Google search continued .
Overview. Google Desktop makes searching your computer as easy as searching the web with Google. It’s a desktop search application that provides full text search over your email continued .
Google Web Accelerator Basics. What is Google Web Accelerator? How does Google Web Accelerator work? Can I use Google Web Accelerator with a dial-up connection? Does Google Web continued .
Attention Webmasters: Are you interested in having Google index videos on your site? Try Google Video Sitemaps! continued .
Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey continued .
Find it with Google. Buy it with Google Checkout. Want a faster, safer and more convenient way to shop online? You got it. continued .
Official site. Includes developer’s kit, terms and conditions, and FAQ. continued .
We are no longer accepting new sign-ups for Page Creator because we have shifted our focus to developing Google Sites, which offers many of the capabilities of Page Creator along continued .
Radically increase your conversion rate. Website Optimizer, Google’s free website testing and optimization tool, allows you to increase the value of your existing websites and continued .
Search and preview millions of books from libraries and publishers worldwide using Google Book Search. Discover a new favorite or unearth an old classic. continued .
Enter one keyword or phrase per line to see what related word searches your ad will show on. continued .
Search and watch millions of videos indexed from all over the web. Upload and share videos with the world. continued .
Google SketchUp is 3D for everyone Google SketchUp is software that you can use to create, modify and share 3D models. It’s easier to learn than other 3D modeling programs, which continued .
Google Investor Relations
Financial Release Download PDF version [52k] Google Announces Fourth Quarter And Fiscal Year 2007 Results. MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - January 31, 2008 - Google Inc. (NASDAQ:
Source: investor.google.com
Google Toolbar - Features
Custom buttons with support for Google Gadgets. With support for live feeds and custom site search, Google Toolbar custom buttons are more than just bookmarks.
Source: toolbar.google.com
Yahoo!
Welcome to Yahoo!, the world’s most visited home page. Quickly find what you’re searching for, get in touch with friends and stay in-the-know with the latest news and information.
Source: www.yahoo.com
Google Adwords Keywords Suggestions
Enter one keyword or phrase per line to see what related word searches your ad will show on.
Source: adwords.google.com
Picasa 3 for Linux: Free download from Google
Picasa is a software download from Google that helps you organize, edit, and share your photos. It’s free, and easy to use.
Source: picasa.google.com
Gmail: Privacy
Gmail Privacy Notice October 14, 2005. The Google Privacy Policy describes how we treat personal information when you use Google’s products and services, including information
Source: gmail.google.com
Google Flu Trends
Explore flu trends across the U.S., including state-by-state graphs showing flu activity for the current flu season.
Source: www.google.org
Get your Indian Railways PNR status on Cleartrip
Analysing online travel fraud
As a part of implementing a new fraud management system at Cleartrip, we recently undertook some analysis of fraudulent transactions on our site and we turned up some interesting data patterns: 85% of frauds come from Yahoo, Rediff and Gmail addresses; with Yahoo taking the lion’s share Over 85% of fraudulent bookings are for travel within 7 days from the booking date Almost 80% of fraud bookings are for travel on the same day–within 9 hours of booking time Cleartrip’s fraud rates are already low, but we’re targeting an 80% reduction in fraud over the next two months–we’re always looking out for the safety of our customers and we hope that by publishing this data here, we can help other online businesses crack down on ecommerce fraud. We’ve visualised the data below.
Source: blog.cleartrip.com
Wells Fargo ATM redesign
All of us use ATms every single day and the user experience is many notches below ‘acceptable,’ let’s not even discuss the experience being ‘wow.’ Wells Fargo commissioned Pentagram to redesign their ATM interface and the results are amazing. Here’s a before and after shot: Holger Struppek’s post on the redesign is a must-read. ATMs are a complex combination of touchscreens and keyboard inputs and the post dives into the details of the project as well as the design process that gave birth to a far more human interface for ATMs. [via Adel Anwar]
Source: blog.cleartrip.com
Jerry Yang To Step Down As Soon As Yahoo Board Finds Replacement (Travel Insurance, Air deccan, GDS airlines,cleartrip)
Top Headlines Of The Week From paidContent.org, mocoNews And paidContent:UK
Top headlines of the week from paidContent.org, mocoNews.net and paidContentUK: paidContent.org: — Interview: Vivian Schiller, President & CEO, National Public Radio: NPR Can Solve Hyperlocal — Time Inc Releases Details Of Consumer Marketing And Sales Reorg, More On Digital; 92 Laid Off — Lifetime Buys S. Korean Dress-Up Site Roiworld, Launches New Gaming Studio — Quadrangle Closing Faltering Media Hedge Fund; Losses Near 25 Percent — YouTube’s New Bid To Boost Revenues: Sponsored Videos And A Live Performance mocoNews: — Interview: Has Mobile Gaming Finally Turned The Corner? Gameloft’s de Vallois Makes His Case — Verizon Wireless Search Deal: Microsoft Closing In On It; Guarantees May Cross $500M Mark — Earnings Call: Clearwire Gears Up For Q1 WiMax Launch; Looks At Using White Spaces — MediaFLO Expects To Nearly Double The Number Of Markets It Serves By Year-End 2009 — Thumbplay Trims Headcount To Prepare For Prolonged Economic Downturn — Twitter Gets Message To Find Ways To Make Money In Tough Economic Times paidContent:UK: — Highfield’s Latest Leap: What’s It Mean For Kangaroo, Microsoft? — BBC’s Rose, Titus Get New Roles In Tweak To Digital Exec Line-Up — Earnings: Thomson Reuters Sees Strong Demand Despite Downturn, Sales Up In First Full Quarter — Virgin Media Cutting 2,200 Jobs To Save £120 Million; Not Caused By Economy — Lonely Planet To Share Ad Revenue With Amateur Travel Bloggers Briefing notes from our research director Lauren Rich Fine are still available: Positive Bias: The Problem With the Latest Online Ad Forecasts | Online Fantasy Sports: Growth Outlook Intact Our streamlined mobile application for the BlackBerry and other smart devices brings you the latest headlines quickly on the go. Click here to download.
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Infibeam Acquires Photo Printing Portal Picsquare
Picsquare CEO Manish Agrawal has confirmed the deal with Ahmedabad-based Infibeam to VCCircle. Bangalore based photo printing portal Picsqure has been sold to Indian online retail firm Infibeam. Picsquare CEO Manish Agrawal has confirmed the deal to VCCircle. He, however, refused to divulge the financial details nor commented whether it was a cash or stock deal. VCCircle was the first to report about the deal betweem Infibeam and Picsquare on Monday. The Bangalore-based Picsquare will now be a subsidiary of Infibeam and will continue to operate as a stand alone website. Also Agrawal refused to comment if the current investors are exiting the company. Agrawal and his co-founder Kartik Jain will continue their present roles in Picsquare. Agrawal said that the deal has nothing to do with the slowdown and Picsquare continues to grow. “We thought this is a good opportunity to work togetther and make something big in this space,” said Agrawal. Picsquare now plans to add more features to the website, expand it’s product selection and team. There are synergies between Picsquare and Infibeam in terms of knowledge sharing and customers. Previous story posted on Monday (17/11/08): The economic slowdown seems to have started having an impact on India’s web 2.0 startups. Bangalore-based online photo printing company Picsquare is believed to be in advanced stages of talks to sell to online retail firm Infibeam. When contacted by VCCircle, Manish Agrawal, co-founder and CEO of Picsquare, neither confirmed nor denied the development to VCCircle. “It will be too early to comment on this development,” he later called to say. Picsquare, besides offering services like printing photos, also personalised mugs, t-shirts, mousepads, calendars etc. Formed in 2005, it has a total user base of 2 lakh and a team of 11 people. In 2006, Picsquare raised $75,000 from three angel investors - Sanjay Swami, CEO of mCheck, Shripati Acharya, founder of Snapfish and Vijay Iyer, Vice President of Strategic Alliances, Silver Creek Systems Inc. Then, in August this year, it also roped in a strategic partner, Bhola Digital Lab, an offline photo printing company. The company is currently in the growth stage and is expanding its operations. Ahmedabad-based Infibeam sells products via internet, which includes new and used automobiles, mobiles and accessories, books, cameras, watches, gifts, toys and home appliances. It’s founder and CEO is Vishal Mehta. This is not the first M&A in this space. Earlier this year Hewlett & Packard-owned online photo printing site Snapfish.com acquired an Indian online photo printing website MeraSnap.com. There are a lot of players in online photo printing space, and quite a few have raised funding. One of the oldest photo portals is ZoomIn, which is backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers and Sherpalo Ventures. Printo is another one to receive funding from Sequoia Capital and Seed Fund. Banglore-based Canvera raised Series A funding in May this year from Footprint Ventures, DFJ and others. There are also other players like eYaadien and Photomasti. Then personalised merchandising firms such as Myntra and eYantra also overlap this field as they also personalised merchandises. This story has been provided by our content partner VCCircle Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.
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Accel India Closes $60M Second Fund For Seed, Early Stage
There will be no significant shift in the investment strategy for the new fund. While there are almost all the funds targeting the late stage, growth capital investing and even PIPE ( private investments in public equity) investing, here is a VC fund which has raised capital to do seed and early stage investing. Accel India, formerly known as Erasmic Partners has closed a new $60 million seed and early stage fund. Accel believes that seed and early stage markets continue to be under served in India, attracting less than 5% of the total venture capital funds. There will not be a significant shift in the investment strategy of Accel, and it will continue with their highly engaged model to venture building. Accel India’s portfolio of companies includes DoveTail, HolidayIQ, Inbiopro, Kaati Zone, Kirusa, MuSigma, Myntra, Perfint, Sconce and Virident. “Accel India is pleased to have gained the support of our industry’s elite investors,” said Peter Wagner, Partner at Accel Partners. “The Accel India team is already functioning as a key element of our Accel global network, to the benefit of talented, passionate entrepreneurs in India and around the world.” “We have seen a significant increase in entrepreneurial activity in the last few years; many are first time entrepreneurs who find significant value in our team’s experience in hands-on company building beyond just the cash investment” said Subrata Mitra, Partner at Accel India. Accel India is managed by four partners: Mahendran Balachandran, Gagan Kumar, Subrata Mitra and Prashanth Prakash. This story has been provided by our content partner VCCircle Mark Logic Digital Publishing Summit, Thursday November 6, Westin Times Square. Insight and perspective from Outsell, Gilbane, Simon & Schuster, BusinessWeek.com, more. Evening cocktail reception. Cost is complimentary. Register now!
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Accel India’s Prakash: ‘We Are Yet To See Slowdown In Business Plans We Receive’
Prashant Prakash, Partner, Accel India, says only very high quality biz plans will get funded now. Accel India, the new avtar of Erasmic Venture Fund, the Bangalore-based early and seed stage fund, recently closed their second fund with a corpus of $60 million. Erasmic earlier managed about $10 million and usually invested sub-$1 million in very eary stage companies. VCCircle’s Shrija Agrawal caught up with Prashanth Prakash, Partner, Accel India, in an email interview post the fund closing announcement. Your fund has swelled from $10 million or so earlier to $60 million now. What new can we expect from Accel Partners now? There will be a continued emphasis on the seed and early stage space as in our earlier fund. What will be new is our ability to leverage Accel’s global platform: e.g., Accel’s information network and worldwide network of relationships with key individuals, customers and market-leading companies. These networks and Accel’s global brand will give our portfolio companies superior credibility and attractiveness in the marketplace, resulting in recruiting advantages, accelerated sales cycles with key customers, and enhanced ability to strike strategic deals with industry-leading companies. What is the time horizon for investing this capital? Four years. Arent you happy that you raised the fund at the nick of time? By the time crisis became worse you were already home with fund. Accel enjoys association with some of the very best LPs around the world. More than timing it illustrates the strong backing Accel’s India initiative has received from our LPs in very turbulent financial times. In the current economic climate, what kind of deals do you expect in early and seed stage? We expect to see more startups that will target consumer and business opportunities for the domestic markets which at this point are relatively more stable and still growing. These will be across many high-growth sectors and not limited to tech products or services. Don’t you think an economic slowdown affects entrepreneurship or new ideas? People will usually be skeptical about leaving their secure job and starting up especially when you need staying power to tide over the crisis. Historically some of the best innovations and ideas have come during economic down cycles. We are yet to see any slowdown in the number of business plans that we receive. That said, the bar for funding in these times will definitely be higher, we can expect only the highest quality teams and ideas to attract venture funding. What is your advice to the startups you have funded so far on tiding over the current market slump? You have funded a few social media companies where the business models are not clear yet. They have a long, long way to go to see a revenue stream. While there is much talk today on cash conservation, we have always emphasised the need to be capital efficient sometimes even at the cost of growth. Most of our companies are close to cash breakeven and a few are already very profitable. More specifically, our internet companies have focused very sharply on building revenue models that work in the Indian context, and several of them are in sight of being cash breakeven. Do you see a shift in your investment strategy? We do not expect any significant shift in our investment strategy. What are your learnings from the Indian market in the last few years of your operation? We have worked with more than 20 seed and early stage companies over the last few years. Our experiences suggest the following: — Staged infusion of capital is the most efficient and beneficial to all parties in the long run — A number of founding teams do not have prior company building experience, and, thus far, it has been hard to acquire senior management talent from outside — Active involvement is required from us, particularly for the first 12-18 months post fundin — Companies need support for strategic & operational help; and key contacts for sales or partnerships This story has been provided by our content partner VCCircle Related Accel India Closes $60M Second Fund For Seed, Early Stage Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.
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M & A Star Buys Majority In Asianet; Forms JV With Rajeev Chandrasekhar
Star’s acquisition of majority stake in Asianet shows the importance of growing South Indian media. Asianet Communications Ltd (ACL), Malayalam’s first entertainment television company, has finally landed in the hands of Rupert Murdoch’s Star TV. Star will take a majority stake in a joint venture company with Asianet’s current owner Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s Jupiter Entertainment Ventures which will hold the TV company. The new JV will be called Star Jupiter Entertainment Television Ltd (Star Jupiter). The deal , however, does not include the news business. The financial terms of the deal are not available. Chandrasekhar, the former telecom entrepreneur, bought ACL in late 2006 via his investment firm Jupiter Entertainment Ventures. It’s not clear how much stake the original founders and promoters like Raji Menon will hold in the new joint venture. Menon holds about 26% stake. ACL broadcasts channels in Malayalam (Asianet, Asianet Plus), Kannada (Suvarna), and Telugu (Sitara). The new JV, Star Jupiter, will also make additional investments for launching new channels in South India.Vijay, the Tamil language general entertainment channel currently operated and owned by Star, will come under Star Jupiter, according to a report in Indiantelevision.com. “We will be holding at least 51 per cent and the deal is restricted to the TV entertainment business. The news business doesn’t make sense for us as regulation allows only 26 per cent foreign direct investment,” Star India CEO Uday Shankar has been quoted as saying by Indiantelevision.. Asianet Communications includes news channels (Asianet News in Malayalam, Suvarna News in Kannada), and entertainment businesses like (movies and television, FM radio, and digital media). They have plans to launch news channels in Tamil and Telugu in December this year. News Corp (NYSE: NWS). chairman Rupert Murdoch had said during his visit to India that the company would be investing $100 million for six regional channels. Star’s acquisition of Asianet Communications shows the importance of South Indian media growth story. According to Star CEO Paul Aiello, the deal is a game changing one for Star. Peepul Capital has backed a regional media company based in Hyderabad called Associated Broadcasting Company Pvt Ltd. This story has been provided by our content partner VCCircle Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
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Jerry Yang To Step (Travel Insurance, Air deccan, GDS airlines,cleartrip) Down As Soon As Yahoo Board Finds Replacement
M & A Star Buys Majority In Asianet; Forms JV With Rajeev Chandrasekhar
Star’s acquisition of majority stake in Asianet shows the importance of growing South Indian media. Asianet Communications Ltd (ACL), Malayalam’s first entertainment television company, has finally landed in the hands of Rupert Murdoch’s Star TV. Star will take a majority stake in a joint venture company with Asianet’s current owner Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s Jupiter Entertainment Ventures which will hold the TV company. The new JV will be called Star Jupiter Entertainment Television Ltd (Star Jupiter). The deal , however, does not include the news business. The financial terms of the deal are not available. Chandrasekhar, the former telecom entrepreneur, bought ACL in late 2006 via his investment firm Jupiter Entertainment Ventures. It’s not clear how much stake the original founders and promoters like Raji Menon will hold in the new joint venture. Menon holds about 26% stake. ACL broadcasts channels in Malayalam (Asianet, Asianet Plus), Kannada (Suvarna), and Telugu (Sitara). The new JV, Star Jupiter, will also make additional investments for launching new channels in South India.Vijay, the Tamil language general entertainment channel currently operated and owned by Star, will come under Star Jupiter, according to a report in Indiantelevision.com. “We will be holding at least 51 per cent and the deal is restricted to the TV entertainment business. The news business doesn’t make sense for us as regulation allows only 26 per cent foreign direct investment,” Star India CEO Uday Shankar has been quoted as saying by Indiantelevision.. Asianet Communications includes news channels (Asianet News in Malayalam, Suvarna News in Kannada), and entertainment businesses like (movies and television, FM radio, and digital media). They have plans to launch news channels in Tamil and Telugu in December this year. News Corp (NYSE: NWS). chairman Rupert Murdoch had said during his visit to India that the company would be investing $100 million for six regional channels. Star’s acquisition of Asianet Communications shows the importance of South Indian media growth story. According to Star CEO Paul Aiello, the deal is a game changing one for Star. Peepul Capital has backed a regional media company based in Hyderabad called Associated Broadcasting Company Pvt Ltd. This story has been provided by our content partner VCCircle Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
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Top Headlines Of The Week From paidContent.org, mocoNews And paidContent:UK
Top headlines of the week from paidContent.org, mocoNews.net and paidContentUK: paidContent.org: — Interview: Vivian Schiller, President & CEO, National Public Radio: NPR Can Solve Hyperlocal — Time Inc Releases Details Of Consumer Marketing And Sales Reorg, More On Digital; 92 Laid Off — Lifetime Buys S. Korean Dress-Up Site Roiworld, Launches New Gaming Studio — Quadrangle Closing Faltering Media Hedge Fund; Losses Near 25 Percent — YouTube’s New Bid To Boost Revenues: Sponsored Videos And A Live Performance mocoNews: — Interview: Has Mobile Gaming Finally Turned The Corner? Gameloft’s de Vallois Makes His Case — Verizon Wireless Search Deal: Microsoft Closing In On It; Guarantees May Cross $500M Mark — Earnings Call: Clearwire Gears Up For Q1 WiMax Launch; Looks At Using White Spaces — MediaFLO Expects To Nearly Double The Number Of Markets It Serves By Year-End 2009 — Thumbplay Trims Headcount To Prepare For Prolonged Economic Downturn — Twitter Gets Message To Find Ways To Make Money In Tough Economic Times paidContent:UK: — Highfield’s Latest Leap: What’s It Mean For Kangaroo, Microsoft? — BBC’s Rose, Titus Get New Roles In Tweak To Digital Exec Line-Up — Earnings: Thomson Reuters Sees Strong Demand Despite Downturn, Sales Up In First Full Quarter — Virgin Media Cutting 2,200 Jobs To Save £120 Million; Not Caused By Economy — Lonely Planet To Share Ad Revenue With Amateur Travel Bloggers Briefing notes from our research director Lauren Rich Fine are still available: Positive Bias: The Problem With the Latest Online Ad Forecasts | Online Fantasy Sports: Growth Outlook Intact Our streamlined mobile application for the BlackBerry and other smart devices brings you the latest headlines quickly on the go. Click here to download.
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Accel India’s Prakash: ‘We Are Yet To See Slowdown In Business Plans We Receive’
Prashant Prakash, Partner, Accel India, says only very high quality biz plans will get funded now. Accel India, the new avtar of Erasmic Venture Fund, the Bangalore-based early and seed stage fund, recently closed their second fund with a corpus of $60 million. Erasmic earlier managed about $10 million and usually invested sub-$1 million in very eary stage companies. VCCircle’s Shrija Agrawal caught up with Prashanth Prakash, Partner, Accel India, in an email interview post the fund closing announcement. Your fund has swelled from $10 million or so earlier to $60 million now. What new can we expect from Accel Partners now? There will be a continued emphasis on the seed and early stage space as in our earlier fund. What will be new is our ability to leverage Accel’s global platform: e.g., Accel’s information network and worldwide network of relationships with key individuals, customers and market-leading companies. These networks and Accel’s global brand will give our portfolio companies superior credibility and attractiveness in the marketplace, resulting in recruiting advantages, accelerated sales cycles with key customers, and enhanced ability to strike strategic deals with industry-leading companies. What is the time horizon for investing this capital? Four years. Arent you happy that you raised the fund at the nick of time? By the time crisis became worse you were already home with fund. Accel enjoys association with some of the very best LPs around the world. More than timing it illustrates the strong backing Accel’s India initiative has received from our LPs in very turbulent financial times. In the current economic climate, what kind of deals do you expect in early and seed stage? We expect to see more startups that will target consumer and business opportunities for the domestic markets which at this point are relatively more stable and still growing. These will be across many high-growth sectors and not limited to tech products or services. Don’t you think an economic slowdown affects entrepreneurship or new ideas? People will usually be skeptical about leaving their secure job and starting up especially when you need staying power to tide over the crisis. Historically some of the best innovations and ideas have come during economic down cycles. We are yet to see any slowdown in the number of business plans that we receive. That said, the bar for funding in these times will definitely be higher, we can expect only the highest quality teams and ideas to attract venture funding. What is your advice to the startups you have funded so far on tiding over the current market slump? You have funded a few social media companies where the business models are not clear yet. They have a long, long way to go to see a revenue stream. While there is much talk today on cash conservation, we have always emphasised the need to be capital efficient sometimes even at the cost of growth. Most of our companies are close to cash breakeven and a few are already very profitable. More specifically, our internet companies have focused very sharply on building revenue models that work in the Indian context, and several of them are in sight of being cash breakeven. Do you see a shift in your investment strategy? We do not expect any significant shift in our investment strategy. What are your learnings from the Indian market in the last few years of your operation? We have worked with more than 20 seed and early stage companies over the last few years. Our experiences suggest the following: — Staged infusion of capital is the most efficient and beneficial to all parties in the long run — A number of founding teams do not have prior company building experience, and, thus far, it has been hard to acquire senior management talent from outside — Active involvement is required from us, particularly for the first 12-18 months post fundin — Companies need support for strategic & operational help; and key contacts for sales or partnerships This story has been provided by our content partner VCCircle Related Accel India Closes $60M Second Fund For Seed, Early Stage Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.
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Jerry Yang To Step Down As Soon As (Travel Insurance, Air deccan, GDS airlines,cleartrip) Yahoo Board Finds Replacement
Accel India’s Prakash: ‘We Are Yet To See Slowdown In Business Plans We Receive’
Prashant Prakash, Partner, Accel India, says only very high quality biz plans will get funded now. Accel India, the new avtar of Erasmic Venture Fund, the Bangalore-based early and seed stage fund, recently closed their second fund with a corpus of $60 million. Erasmic earlier managed about $10 million and usually invested sub-$1 million in very eary stage companies. VCCircle’s Shrija Agrawal caught up with Prashanth Prakash, Partner, Accel India, in an email interview post the fund closing announcement. Your fund has swelled from $10 million or so earlier to $60 million now. What new can we expect from Accel Partners now? There will be a continued emphasis on the seed and early stage space as in our earlier fund. What will be new is our ability to leverage Accel’s global platform: e.g., Accel’s information network and worldwide network of relationships with key individuals, customers and market-leading companies. These networks and Accel’s global brand will give our portfolio companies superior credibility and attractiveness in the marketplace, resulting in recruiting advantages, accelerated sales cycles with key customers, and enhanced ability to strike strategic deals with industry-leading companies. What is the time horizon for investing this capital? Four years. Arent you happy that you raised the fund at the nick of time? By the time crisis became worse you were already home with fund. Accel enjoys association with some of the very best LPs around the world. More than timing it illustrates the strong backing Accel’s India initiative has received from our LPs in very turbulent financial times. In the current economic climate, what kind of deals do you expect in early and seed stage? We expect to see more startups that will target consumer and business opportunities for the domestic markets which at this point are relatively more stable and still growing. These will be across many high-growth sectors and not limited to tech products or services. Don’t you think an economic slowdown affects entrepreneurship or new ideas? People will usually be skeptical about leaving their secure job and starting up especially when you need staying power to tide over the crisis. Historically some of the best innovations and ideas have come during economic down cycles. We are yet to see any slowdown in the number of business plans that we receive. That said, the bar for funding in these times will definitely be higher, we can expect only the highest quality teams and ideas to attract venture funding. What is your advice to the startups you have funded so far on tiding over the current market slump? You have funded a few social media companies where the business models are not clear yet. They have a long, long way to go to see a revenue stream. While there is much talk today on cash conservation, we have always emphasised the need to be capital efficient sometimes even at the cost of growth. Most of our companies are close to cash breakeven and a few are already very profitable. More specifically, our internet companies have focused very sharply on building revenue models that work in the Indian context, and several of them are in sight of being cash breakeven. Do you see a shift in your investment strategy? We do not expect any significant shift in our investment strategy. What are your learnings from the Indian market in the last few years of your operation? We have worked with more than 20 seed and early stage companies over the last few years. Our experiences suggest the following: — Staged infusion of capital is the most efficient and beneficial to all parties in the long run — A number of founding teams do not have prior company building experience, and, thus far, it has been hard to acquire senior management talent from outside — Active involvement is required from us, particularly for the first 12-18 months post fundin — Companies need support for strategic & operational help; and key contacts for sales or partnerships This story has been provided by our content partner VCCircle Related Accel India Closes $60M Second Fund For Seed, Early Stage Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.
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Top Headlines Of The Week From paidContent.org, mocoNews And paidContent:UK
Top headlines of the week from paidContent.org, mocoNews.net and paidContentUK: paidContent.org: — Interview: Vivian Schiller, President & CEO, National Public Radio: NPR Can Solve Hyperlocal — Time Inc Releases Details Of Consumer Marketing And Sales Reorg, More On Digital; 92 Laid Off — Lifetime Buys S. Korean Dress-Up Site Roiworld, Launches New Gaming Studio — Quadrangle Closing Faltering Media Hedge Fund; Losses Near 25 Percent — YouTube’s New Bid To Boost Revenues: Sponsored Videos And A Live Performance mocoNews: — Interview: Has Mobile Gaming Finally Turned The Corner? Gameloft’s de Vallois Makes His Case — Verizon Wireless Search Deal: Microsoft Closing In On It; Guarantees May Cross $500M Mark — Earnings Call: Clearwire Gears Up For Q1 WiMax Launch; Looks At Using White Spaces — MediaFLO Expects To Nearly Double The Number Of Markets It Serves By Year-End 2009 — Thumbplay Trims Headcount To Prepare For Prolonged Economic Downturn — Twitter Gets Message To Find Ways To Make Money In Tough Economic Times paidContent:UK: — Highfield’s Latest Leap: What’s It Mean For Kangaroo, Microsoft? — BBC’s Rose, Titus Get New Roles In Tweak To Digital Exec Line-Up — Earnings: Thomson Reuters Sees Strong Demand Despite Downturn, Sales Up In First Full Quarter — Virgin Media Cutting 2,200 Jobs To Save £120 Million; Not Caused By Economy — Lonely Planet To Share Ad Revenue With Amateur Travel Bloggers Briefing notes from our research director Lauren Rich Fine are still available: Positive Bias: The Problem With the Latest Online Ad Forecasts | Online Fantasy Sports: Growth Outlook Intact Our streamlined mobile application for the BlackBerry and other smart devices brings you the latest headlines quickly on the go. Click here to download.
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Infibeam Acquires Photo Printing Portal Picsquare
Picsquare CEO Manish Agrawal has confirmed the deal with Ahmedabad-based Infibeam to VCCircle. Bangalore based photo printing portal Picsqure has been sold to Indian online retail firm Infibeam. Picsquare CEO Manish Agrawal has confirmed the deal to VCCircle. He, however, refused to divulge the financial details nor commented whether it was a cash or stock deal. VCCircle was the first to report about the deal betweem Infibeam and Picsquare on Monday. The Bangalore-based Picsquare will now be a subsidiary of Infibeam and will continue to operate as a stand alone website. Also Agrawal refused to comment if the current investors are exiting the company. Agrawal and his co-founder Kartik Jain will continue their present roles in Picsquare. Agrawal said that the deal has nothing to do with the slowdown and Picsquare continues to grow. “We thought this is a good opportunity to work togetther and make something big in this space,” said Agrawal. Picsquare now plans to add more features to the website, expand it’s product selection and team. There are synergies between Picsquare and Infibeam in terms of knowledge sharing and customers. Previous story posted on Monday (17/11/08): The economic slowdown seems to have started having an impact on India’s web 2.0 startups. Bangalore-based online photo printing company Picsquare is believed to be in advanced stages of talks to sell to online retail firm Infibeam. When contacted by VCCircle, Manish Agrawal, co-founder and CEO of Picsquare, neither confirmed nor denied the development to VCCircle. “It will be too early to comment on this development,” he later called to say. Picsquare, besides offering services like printing photos, also personalised mugs, t-shirts, mousepads, calendars etc. Formed in 2005, it has a total user base of 2 lakh and a team of 11 people. In 2006, Picsquare raised $75,000 from three angel investors - Sanjay Swami, CEO of mCheck, Shripati Acharya, founder of Snapfish and Vijay Iyer, Vice President of Strategic Alliances, Silver Creek Systems Inc. Then, in August this year, it also roped in a strategic partner, Bhola Digital Lab, an offline photo printing company. The company is currently in the growth stage and is expanding its operations. Ahmedabad-based Infibeam sells products via internet, which includes new and used automobiles, mobiles and accessories, books, cameras, watches, gifts, toys and home appliances. It’s founder and CEO is Vishal Mehta. This is not the first M&A in this space. Earlier this year Hewlett & Packard-owned online photo printing site Snapfish.com acquired an Indian online photo printing website MeraSnap.com. There are a lot of players in online photo printing space, and quite a few have raised funding. One of the oldest photo portals is ZoomIn, which is backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers and Sherpalo Ventures. Printo is another one to receive funding from Sequoia Capital and Seed Fund. Banglore-based Canvera raised Series A funding in May this year from Footprint Ventures, DFJ and others. There are also other players like eYaadien and Photomasti. Then personalised merchandising firms such as Myntra and eYantra also overlap this field as they also personalised merchandises. This story has been provided by our content partner VCCircle Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.
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Accel India Closes $60M Second Fund For Seed, Early Stage
There will be no significant shift in the investment strategy for the new fund. While there are almost all the funds targeting the late stage, growth capital investing and even PIPE ( private investments in public equity) investing, here is a VC fund which has raised capital to do seed and early stage investing. Accel India, formerly known as Erasmic Partners has closed a new $60 million seed and early stage fund. Accel believes that seed and early stage markets continue to be under served in India, attracting less than 5% of the total venture capital funds. There will not be a significant shift in the investment strategy of Accel, and it will continue with their highly engaged model to venture building. Accel India’s portfolio of companies includes DoveTail, HolidayIQ, Inbiopro, Kaati Zone, Kirusa, MuSigma, Myntra, Perfint, Sconce and Virident. “Accel India is pleased to have gained the support of our industry’s elite investors,” said Peter Wagner, Partner at Accel Partners. “The Accel India team is already functioning as a key element of our Accel global network, to the benefit of talented, passionate entrepreneurs in India and around the world.” “We have seen a significant increase in entrepreneurial activity in the last few years; many are first time entrepreneurs who find significant value in our team’s experience in hands-on company building beyond just the cash investment” said Subrata Mitra, Partner at Accel India. Accel India is managed by four partners: Mahendran Balachandran, Gagan Kumar, Subrata Mitra and Prashanth Prakash. This story has been provided by our content partner VCCircle Mark Logic Digital Publishing Summit, Thursday November 6, Westin Times Square. Insight and perspective from Outsell, Gilbane, Simon & Schuster, BusinessWeek.com, more. Evening cocktail reception. Cost is complimentary. Register now!
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M & A Star Buys Majority In Asianet; Forms JV With Rajeev Chandrasekhar
Star’s acquisition of majority stake in Asianet shows the importance of growing South Indian media. Asianet Communications Ltd (ACL), Malayalam’s first entertainment television company, has finally landed in the hands of Rupert Murdoch’s Star TV. Star will take a majority stake in a joint venture company with Asianet’s current owner Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s Jupiter Entertainment Ventures which will hold the TV company. The new JV will be called Star Jupiter Entertainment Television Ltd (Star Jupiter). The deal , however, does not include the news business. The financial terms of the deal are not available. Chandrasekhar, the former telecom entrepreneur, bought ACL in late 2006 via his investment firm Jupiter Entertainment Ventures. It’s not clear how much stake the original founders and promoters like Raji Menon will hold in the new joint venture. Menon holds about 26% stake. ACL broadcasts channels in Malayalam (Asianet, Asianet Plus), Kannada (Suvarna), and Telugu (Sitara). The new JV, Star Jupiter, will also make additional investments for launching new channels in South India.Vijay, the Tamil language general entertainment channel currently operated and owned by Star, will come under Star Jupiter, according to a report in Indiantelevision.com. “We will be holding at least 51 per cent and the deal is restricted to the TV entertainment business. The news business doesn’t make sense for us as regulation allows only 26 per cent foreign direct investment,” Star India CEO Uday Shankar has been quoted as saying by Indiantelevision.. Asianet Communications includes news channels (Asianet News in Malayalam, Suvarna News in Kannada), and entertainment businesses like (movies and television, FM radio, and digital media). They have plans to launch news channels in Tamil and Telugu in December this year. News Corp (NYSE: NWS). chairman Rupert Murdoch had said during his visit to India that the company would be investing $100 million for six regional channels. Star’s acquisition of Asianet Communications shows the importance of South Indian media growth story. According to Star CEO Paul Aiello, the deal is a game changing one for Star. Peepul Capital has backed a regional media company based in Hyderabad called Associated Broadcasting Company Pvt Ltd. This story has been provided by our content partner VCCircle Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
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M & A Star Buys Majority In Asianet; Forms JV With (Travel Insurance, Air deccan, GDS airlines,cleartrip) Rajeev Chandrasekhar
Accel India Closes $60M Second Fund For Seed, Early Stage
There will be no significant shift in the investment strategy for the new fund. While there are almost all the funds targeting the late stage, growth capital investing and even PIPE ( private investments in public equity) investing, here is a VC fund which has raised capital to do seed and early stage investing. Accel India, formerly known as Erasmic Partners has closed a new $60 million seed and early stage fund. Accel believes that seed and early stage markets continue to be under served in India, attracting less than 5% of the total venture capital funds. There will not be a significant shift in the investment strategy of Accel, and it will continue with their highly engaged model to venture building. Accel India’s portfolio of companies includes DoveTail, HolidayIQ, Inbiopro, Kaati Zone, Kirusa, MuSigma, Myntra, Perfint, Sconce and Virident. “Accel India is pleased to have gained the support of our industry’s elite investors,” said Peter Wagner, Partner at Accel Partners. “The Accel India team is already functioning as a key element of our Accel global network, to the benefit of talented, passionate entrepreneurs in India and around the world.” “We have seen a significant increase in entrepreneurial activity in the last few years; many are first time entrepreneurs who find significant value in our team’s experience in hands-on company building beyond just the cash investment” said Subrata Mitra, Partner at Accel India. Accel India is managed by four partners: Mahendran Balachandran, Gagan Kumar, Subrata Mitra and Prashanth Prakash. This story has been provided by our content partner VCCircle Mark Logic Digital Publishing Summit, Thursday November 6, Westin Times Square. Insight and perspective from Outsell, Gilbane, Simon & Schuster, BusinessWeek.com, more. Evening cocktail reception. Cost is complimentary. Register now!
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ashish comments on The designer’s (Travel Insurance, Air deccan, GDS airlines,cleartrip) dilemma
Hrush comments on Panoramio photos added to hotel maps
Panoramio gave us some very easy API hooks straight into Google Maps. In fact, Panoramio is now a part of the Google Maps API itself, easing integration significantly.
Source: blog.cleartrip.com
