Global tech giant Microsoft ruled the roost in 2016 in the world of technology making acquisitions and profits all over. With hundreds of millions of devices running Windows 10, Microsoft had reportedly earned billions of dollars of revenue in the past year. Microsoft also made a big acquisition, LinkedIn along with a launch of the Slack competitor called Teams. But most importantly, after Satya Nadella took over as the CEO of the company, its focus on Cloud computing has reaped huge dividends and will continue doing so. Interestingly, once a closed software system, Microsoft also embraced open source in this period. The result can be seen in its amazing new product launches.

Mumbai: A group of private equity (PE) and hedge funds representing minority shareholders of Reliance Infratel Ltd, the telecom tower arm of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom), have demanded that RCom buy their stakes back before going ahead with its majority stake sale to Brookfield Infrastructure Group, two people aware of the development said on condition of anonymity.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday filed draft papers with market regulator SEBI for its much-awaited IPO. The IPO is expected to be one of the biggest in recent times, with an estimated size of over Rs, 10,000 crore.

The initial public offer will see existing shareholders offloading 20-25 per cent shares to the public through the OFS route.

Giving a major fillip to its innovation-packed product line-up, Chennai-based auto major TVS Motor Co has been granted an Indian patent for automatic hybrid transmission (AHT) system for two-wheelers. The invention for which exclusivity has now been provided by Chennai patent office is related to a system involving a combination of a fixed speed transmission mechanism (FSTM) and a continuously variable transmission mechanism (CVTM).

The spree of reduction in interest rates on term deposits continued, with ICICI Bank on Tuesday cutting rates on one- and two-year retail deposits by 10 basis points (bps) to 6.9% and 7%, respectively. The bank also slashed the rate on three-year deposits by 25 bps to 6.75%.

ICICI Bank’s interest rate for one-year money is now at par with that of State Bank of India (SBI).

Over the weekend, ITC made price hikes in Gold Flake Regular and Premium (69mm) and Navy Cut (74mm) brands. The price for Gold Flake (69mm) has been increased to Rs 90/pack of 10 cigarettes (vs Rs 79 earlier) and for Navy Cut the price has been increased to Rs 89/pack of 10 cigarettes (vs Rs 78 earlier). We had highlighted earlier in our channel check note that some of the channel partners were anticipating the price hike in these brands. We maintain Outperform with a TP of Rs 304.

Wipro has taken an interesting approach towards digital through Wipro Digital, a unit that is branded separately and focuses entirely on business outcomes using strategy, design and technology as the enablers. Acquisition of Designit has been a shot in the arm. We maintain our reduce stance on Wipro noting multiple business headwinds but would keep a close eye on its aggressive and interesting approach to play catch-up in digital.

Reliance Industries has announced the commissioning of the first phase of its Paraxylene (PX) plant at Jamnagar, Gujarat.

The plant with capacity of 2.2 million tonnes per annum is built with state-of-the-art crystallisation technology from BP which is highly energy efficient and environment friendly.

The Sensex wiped off all its gains on Wednesday to end in the red with a minuscule fall at 26,211 as cautious investors took profit at higher levels ahead of the monthly derivatives expiry amid a mixed trend overseas. Besides, the rupee depreciated 18 paise intra-day against the dollar, to 68.24, which had a negative impact too. But volumes were thin during the session as most foreign investors are away on a vacation in a year-end holiday season and other participants chose not to widen their bets.

India overtook the US to become the largest country in terms of interest in mobile developer courses in 2016, Google India said on Tuesday search queries in mobile development courses from India saw 200 per cent (year-on-year growth) in the last two years. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra led with bulk of Search queries for mobile developer courses.

“We have seen tremendous response across mobile developer courses from India, with 16,500 students enrolling every month, taking up Android development, mobile web development and learning new cloud-based technology courses,” said Peter Lubbers, Head, Google Developer Training, in a statement.

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