Vodafone-Idea Merger: Biggest Threat To The Telecom Market

On Monday, Vodafone announced plans of merging with another telecom biggie Idea Cellular, a company run by Kumar Mangalam Birla. If this merger is successful, the face of the telecom industry will completely change, don’t you think so?

With free services, Jio had already captured the entire market and had acquired over 70 million subscribers. With this, it had become the fastest growing telecom company all across the globe. However, with the Vodafone-Idea merger, the scenario might drastically change.

This move was warmly welcomed by Airtel; Sanjay Kapoor, the ex CEO of Bharti Airtel stated that this consolidation will bring about an improvement in the sustainability and the financial health of telecom industry and will drastically improve customer experience and coverage quality.

However, this deal will not only pose threat to Airtel but will bring serious challenges to Reliance Jio as well. Since this deal is finalized, there would be lot of opportunities and challenges.

Both the companies will have to follow certain terms and conditions for cracking the deal. As of now, what’s revealed by Vodafone is that the merger has an all-stock deal which gives Idea the due shares. Moreover, Idea will issue new shares as well. In this deal, Idea as well as Vodafone will have equal rights.

With this combined entity, the subscriber base will reach 395 million and the share would be around 40% in the market. According to the analysts, the deal will complement each other very well; the Indian unit of Vodafone is very strong and considerable cost cutting will be possible with regards to network operating costs or capital spending.

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Honda & Hitachi Join Hands To Produce Motors For Electric Vehicles

Honda Motor Co. the Japanese Automaker has now joined hands with Hitachi Automotive Systems for making, developing as well as selling motors for EV i.e. Electric vehicles. Yes, the companies are of the opinion that since global warming is on a rise, this move will surely help in curbing it; as a result of it, Hitachi and Honda have signed a deal and wish to curb the concerns.  The agreement was announced today and this is great news for the industry.

Honda as we all know is into making of electronic motors and has some fuel-cell vehicles in the pipeline; some hybrids too are on its way. Now, there are plans of an EV sale this year and it would be hosted mainly abroad. Hitachi on the other hand, is Tokyo Based and in the past too, it has supplied several electric motors to other biggies including Nissan Motor Co., the maker of Leaf electric car and the U.S based General Motors Co.

This deal is indeed a great opportunity for Honda to take part in electric cars. As of now, the joint venture has not been named; according to the deal, Hitachi will own 51 percent of it in the sales and manufacturing options in the China and US, said the companies.

Since the regulations of Global environment are going to be tightened, the demand for Electric vehicles is going to be pushed up. The capital invested in this joint venture is 5 billion yen and is based in the city “Hitachinaka”, the one based in North of Tokyo.

The establishment of this venture would happen in the month of July; as we said before, 49 percent will be held by Honda.  The main concentration would be motors that will be used in battery electric cars, plug in hybrids, petrol hybrids etc. Hitachi LTD owns Hitachi Automotive Systems and since long, it has been supplying various brake parts and engines.

With this tie-up, the willingness of Honda to cooperate with another industry player is highlighted; these low-emission cars are going to be great for the environment.  Last week too Honda had announced that it would team up with GM for producing power systems that run on hydrogen fuel.

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http://ejournalz.com/honda-hitachi-join-hands-produce-motors-electric-vehicles/

Samsung Launches Web Payments For Android Users

In a major announcement, Samsung has stated that mobile online payment services will be rolled out for non-galaxy Android phones in South Korea. Yes, this app is named “Samsung Pay Mini” and users can avail it in 2017’s first quarter. As of now, the exact date is not known, but if it is launched in South Korea, it would be launched in various other markets as well.

This mini version of Samsung Pay can be used for offline as well as online payments; however, this would be restricted only for Galaxy phones and was announced last year in the month of May. Various South Korean cards will be supported including Lotte Card, Hana Card, Samsung Card.

The app can be secured with a password or a fingerprint. By August 2016, 100 million transactions were recorded by Samsung Pay globally. With the launch of Samsung Pay Mini, there would be a boost in the services of Samsung and along with that, even the brand awareness and online presence will be increased.

In the month of October-December, the South Korean firm had witnessed a great decline in the global market after the issue of Galaxy Note 7 blasts. With this new application, the sales will be considerably increased.

The new service by Samsung would augment the existing payments platform of Samsung Pay through which the debit card or credit transactions could be made with smartwatch or the Samsung smartphone. The rivals of this platform include Apple Pay of Apple and Android Pay by Google.

Previously, Samsung executives had said that these Pay services were being offered to non-Galaxy phones. This would ease the process of online transactions on this mobile platform. However, on Thursday, Samsung announced that this offline pay facility would be restricted only to devices manufactured by Samsung.
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Nokia To Acquire Comptel For $370 Million

Nokia, the Finnish telecoms equipment maker announced today, it will buy Comptel, another Finnish telecom company for a whopping price of 347 million Euros. This is because; Nokia knows how people are depending on software for making the network smart. Nokia, Ericsson as well as Huawei have suffered a lot these days, because more and more people are demanding 4G broadband. Very soon, the next generation 5G networks will come and these companies will be left behind.

Amidst all this, the traditional suppliers of hardware and accessories are facing big challenges because they aren’t able to virtualize products. Now, there is a race of delivering a good number of communication features.

Comptel beat its rivals Radcom, Convergys and Amdocs last year by developing software which helps operators in managing as well as controlling networks and services. This acquisition is planned by Nokia and the main strategy is building standalone software by strengthening as well as expanding the portfolio as per the capabilities of the market and strategic network.

Some Contradictions To This Deal

There was 1 analyst who was of the belief that this deal could prove as a threat to Nokia. Recently, a virtualization product was launched by Comptel through which network hardware equipment could be made; thus, rival bids can be attracted.

The network sales of Nokia could be weakened by Comptel, said an analyst Mika Metsala. He further added “This is becoming a software business. Like in many businesses, additional value will be created through software, not hardware.”

The share price will be 3.04 Euros, which means there would be a 29 percent premium. Metsala further added that there are several traditional software companies who have interest in such kinds of virtual networks; there are plenty of buyers.

Around 48 percent of Comptel’s shares are with its shareholders and the board of directors. Last year, Alcatel-Lucent, the Franco-American network was purchased by Nokia for 15.6 billion Euros. This was an all-share deal and was done mainly for broadening the portfolio of its products. Now, 1000s of jobs are being cut because the main motive is reducing costs. This month, Nokia reported that there is a 27% fall in the quarterly earnings. Moreover, there are expectations that the global network market’s value will fall by 2 percent this year. Let’s see how this partnership cracks up; what are your views? Do share in our comments section below..

original source

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