Amazon wants what? 🙄
India's EV quest, aggressive China, and IT's cloud reincarnation.
Hi 👋, Tanvi here.
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Stock market summary: 😕
US - S&P 500 - down 0.62%
India - Sensex - down 0.03%
China won’t cave 🤯
In retaliation to the USA shutting down its Houston, Texas consulate abruptly, China has now asked the US to close its own consulate in the western city of Chengdu on Chinese mainland.
The US-China spat is not new. Over the past decade China had been consistently blocking, barring and unfairly treating US businesses operating on its mainland. Tech leaders like Google, Facebook still remain banned for most part there. When the Trump administration took over US government, the spat heated up with trade being large part of the focus.
Now the pandemic has further soured the mood, with Trump openly accusing China of spreading the virus and misinforming the world about its potential to disseminate.
Anyway, about the latest, both sides are constantly negotiating to deescalate the situation, while labeling each other as the first aggressor. Making matters more worse the US state department sent out a notice which warns Americans in China of arbitrary detentions and prolonged interrogations.
Bottomline: we’re in a new world order already. US aggression irrefutably offers China a disproportionately large voice on the world stage. While we’re no geopolitical experts, it can be easily read that this friction is not something that can be ignored anymore and will have long term implications on the world economy, politics, and power order. Get some popcorn, the movie is about to begin. Read more.
Amazon wants what!?? 🙄
ET Now claims that e-commerce giant Amazon may be looking to scoop up a piece of Reliance Retail, looking to buy as much as 9.99% stake in the retail arm of RIL.
Capitalism demands profits over everything else and both CEOs are the Gods of this religion. Until yesterday, RIL and Amazon were locking horns over dominance in India’s digital space. In fact, Jeff had been incessantly complaining about how the Govt. of India favors Reliance, while the Govt. was hell bent on not letting Jeff’s deep pocketed run go unchecked in India’s digital market. The unspoken rivalry between the two billionaires was supposed to be the business world’s soap opera, but it looks like that episode has been cancelled. 🤭
Anyway, switching over to the deal, Reliance Retail is actually quite integral to the success of JioMart’s last-mile retailing ambitions. JioMart which launched in May serves around 3.5 million customers each week through its 10,000 stores in more than 6,500 cities and towns in India, capitalizing on the momentum gained during the nationwide lockdown.
Morgan Stanley believes RIL Retail is worth over $29 Billion, so Amazon will be shelling out quite a lot for a piece. There is little information on the details of the transaction or if Amazon would get a piece of the Jio Platforms pie either. 💰
Bottomline: neither Jeff nor Mukesh bhai is known to back down from a tough fight, but retail is a hard business with thin profits. Why waste money fending each other off when you can make more by joining hands? However, there is a strong chance that the deal is blocked by the government on anti-competitive grounds and that this “rumor” is just their way of testing the waters. Read more.
EV space keeps giving 👏
India’s own fighter in the global EV championships, Bengaluru based two-wheeler maker Ather Energy, has raised Rs 84 crore in an extension of its Series C round from the OG of two-wheelers Hero Moto Corp. 👏👏
Prior to the investment, Hero owned 31.3% in Ather Energy already. With the capital, Ather is looking to expand operations to support a wider roll out of its flagship product. The startup will scale its operations to 20 cities by the end of 2021, making the product ready to early buyers in cities like Hyderabad, Pune, Delhi and Mumbai as soon as October 2020.
Ather is also opening a new manufacturing facility in Hosur, with a current capacity of 1Lakh units and ability to expand to 5Lakh as demand scales. The company also has elaborate plans to make fast charging points available across the country. Bold plans sure need deep pockets.
While the Indian EV market has taken a hit due to the pandemic, the recovery could be strong as people avoid public transportation for a while and public sentiment toward “sustainability” advantages clean fuel alternatives. Read more.
IT giants quietly add cloud chops ☁️
Wipro Ltd has signed an agreement to acquire 4C, one of the largest Salesforce Cloud partners in the UK, Europe, and the Middle East. The pandemic had slowed down the IT business but big firms are now preparing for a comeback in the cloud era.
4C will cost Wipro about $79 million and the transaction is expected to be completed by the quarter-ending September 30. 4C is basically an independent Salesforce partner with deep capabilities across multiple Salesforce products and is HQ’ed in Belgium.
The sale will give Wipro access to 350 of 4C’s engineers and sales staff, significantly strengthening Wipro’s market position in these geographies. Wipro had earlier established a strong Salesforce business in America, Japan and Australia with its Appirio acquisition in 2016. Read more
Health-tech saving the day 💊
An Israeli firm called NanoScent is developing a medical device that detects and reports the coronavirus in under 30 seconds. The could be a life saving accelerator in the hands of front-line workers that are battling the prolonged pandemic.
The firm says extensive trials currently underway in Israel are delivering results with upto 85% accuracy. Continued improvement could see the product receiving regulatory approval within months. The company claims that the objective of this test is not to replace the lab tests but to act as a mass screening tool.
Basically, its a simple hand held device that allows subjects to exhale through a handheld tube into a small bag called the "Air Trap", which then goes into a reader and spits out the results on your phone.
The company is pitching the product as a screening tool at entrances to concerts, hospitals, or in the aviation industry. A commercial pilot was already done in Europe. The device will cost less than $10 per test, which is a fraction of a regular test.
Why do we care: a prolonging pandemic could be horrible for densely populated developing-economies like India, taking lives and reversing decades of economic progress. R&D in testing, measurement, analysis, mass screening can play a large part accelerating re-openings and currently is just as important as vaccination. Read more.
Tweet of the day -
White Claw - an alternative to high-calorie alcoholic drinks is somewhat of a revolution in the US and is quickly becoming a case study for disruption caused by explosive modern era branding.
Here’s a quick story about how the brand came to be, the entrepreneur’s mettle, and some lessons for those looking to crack the DTC code in India.
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
🤝 MMT making amends - Make my trip has now started to restore salaries of its employees to pre-pandemic levels after it started seeing signs of revival in business, nearly three months after cutting employee’s pay.
🚗 Musk riding high on success - riding high on Tesla momentum, Elon believes it's the best time to double down on SpaceX ambitions. The company is looking to raise about a billion at a valuation of about $44 billion, shelling shares at $270 a pop.
🤑 Paisa double - Mukesh Ambani overtook Steve Ballmer to become the 5th richest person on the planet, with a net worth of $77.4 billion. Ambani’s fortune has surged by $18.8 billion since the beginning of the year.
👍 TikTok flattering US Gov- by announcing a $200 Million fund to support US based creators, TikTok is hoping the US Gov will love it like its own child. The fund will help “eligible” creators on the platform earn a livelihood and there will be a formal round of applications. TikTok is finally talking in the only language uncle Sam understands, Dolla baby!
👀 Walmart eyes an opening - accelerating its plans to deploy its pharmacy business in America’s worst affected by pandemic regions, Walmart will open at least six additional Walmart Health clinics in the greater Atlanta area by the end of 2020. Just this week they announced entry into the Florida and Chicago market.
🍎 Apple kickstarts India manufacturing - Commerce and Industry Minister tweeted that Apple has officially started making the iPhone 11 in India. The local assembly of the iPhone 11 would help the company avoid a 20% import tax, making the phones slightly more affordable in India.
💊 Cipla drug is ready - the pharma company will launch coronavirus drug Favipiravir for the treatment of COVID-19 patients starting in Mumbai. The antiviral drug is showing promising results in mild and moderate virus cases.
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Superb content and keep going
And a happy weekend to you as well 😌