Telco moves 📶
Mass upskilling, private rail, and a defunct satellite buy.
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Stock market summary:
US - S&P 500 up 0.50%
India - Sensex up 1.43%
Upskilling 25 million people for the digital age 🙌
MSFT has announced the launch of an initiative aimed at bringing employable digital skills to over 25 million people globally by the end of the year, through its online platforms and through partnerships with NGOs and other vendors.
Leveraging the economic crisis and joblessness created by the pandemic, and identifying the growth in key technical areas buoyed by the pandemic, MSFT hopes that those rendered workless can easily find new avenues to add value.
The new initiative will combine existing and new resources from LinkedIn, MS Learning and Github. The company has identified IT support, digital marketing and design graphics among other in demand skills.
In addition to this, the company is offering $20 million in cash grants to assist non profit organizations worldwide to leverage its tools toward similar outcomes.
The global shift towards cloud computing has created a unique opportunity for MSFT and the mass upskilling campaign can also be looked at as part of their strategy to strengthen their moat. Read more.
Airtel’s data center arm attracts PE suitor 😎
The Carlyle group will buy a 25% stake in Bharti Airtel's data-center business called “Nxtra Data Ltd.”, for $235 million. The telco giant will continue to hold the remaining 75% control.
Nxtra offers managed hosting, recovery, backup, colocation and range of other cloud hosting services throughout India to local SMEs, startups, corporates and hyperscalers. The transaction puts an enterprise value tag of $1.2Billion on the company.
The proceeds from the deal will be used by Nxtra to improve its infrastructure and drive facility expansion.
Global shift from on-premise hosting to cloud computing as well as the explosion of digital services has created a surge in demand for data centers. Analysts are expecting a 2x increase in CAGRs of datacenter deployments post COVID-19. Read more.
Bharti enterprise wants to bid for satellite startup 📡
OneWeb was a satellite company founded recently in 2012 with grand ambitions of leveraging a dense network of LEO (low earth orbit) satellites to bring wider and deeper internet access across the globe including emerging markets such as Africa, Asia and others.
The company had raised over $3B from big name investors until it went bankrupt after key investor Softbank pulled funding citing COVID-19 related cash crunch. The company’s assets are now being auctioned off and interestingly India’s telecom tycoon Sunil Mittal wants to bid for it.
Mittal’s bid attracted the backing of the UK Government as well. Investors read positively into the move and Bharti Enterprises subsidary Airtel’s stock was up a couple percentage points in India.
Following RIL’s ambitious moves to get ahead of the pack, India’s second largest telecom company has come under some pressure to stage a comeback. The company has been making strategic plays in startups every now and then to keep the wheel moving, and this purchase of OneWeb if materialized could significantly help bring some enthusiasm back.
Investors believe the global communication satellite industry is poised for a strong run over the next decade as information technology and consumer consumption of internet services is only expanding.
Rlys kick off privatization 🚂
Indian railways has formally kicked off a project to allow private operators to manage operations of a select few trains. The project is in line with the broad agenda to privatize India’s rail routes and open free markets to capitalize on its robust network.
Right now, the government is requesting proposals on about 109 routes, to manage about 151 newly acquired trains. Estimates suggest the contract passage could pave way for about Rs. 30,000 crore of private capital deployed.
The privatization first began when IRCTC assumed the mantle of managing the Lucknow-Delhi Tejas Express last year. With logistics industry and infrastructure buzzing on the back of exploding e-commerce nationwide, railway’s deep penetration into the nation’s hinterlands could attract ambitious investors to this quest. Read more.
Tweet of the day -
Commuters are working from home and as a result cities are seeing lower car traffic. Lower pollution and noise is making urban life more livable, which has citizens wondering if these changes can be permanent in the post-COVID world. New York City’s recovery for example is bringing a spike in foot traffic and bustling sidewalk activity in the absence of cars.
Mumbai, Bengaluru, and other Indian cities could pick a thing or two?
What else are we snackin’ 🍿
😷 Single day spike in cases with a rise in recovery rates- India’s lockdown easing has led to a single day spike of 18,653 new cases with the death toll rising to 17,400+. Recovery still remains high at 3.47 lakh people cured so far, but observed health condition deterioration in western countries for recovered people give little reason to rejoice yet.
✈️ Airbus to cut 15,000 jobs- After the pandemic paralyzed air travel, demand for airplanes has tanked and Airbus is cutting 15,000 jobs within a year to survive the crisis. The slump drove a 40% decline in its $62 Billion jet business.
🏷️ Premium labels rollout distance selling models for customers- luxury brands are trying everything to serve demand, championing a distance selling model that has helped regular customers get in touch with store managers via video calls, e catalogs and image sharing on whatsapp. Seems like a goldmine for new ideas and technology.
✖️ Alphabet postpones reopening of US offices to September- Google on Tuesday said that it would be delaying reopening of its offices in the US by around 2 months as the US grapples with a second wave.Originally, the company was planning on reopening for 10% capacity beginning July 6, with expansion to 30% by September if conditions permitted.
🛒 AMZN expands grocery delivery service, pantry to 300 cities- At a time when India is seeing a surge in demand in online orders, AMZN has expanded its AMZN Pantry to 300 cities. Customers across 10,000 pin codes will be able to choose from a selection of 3,000 products across 200 brands and it will be delivered within 1-2 days.
🛵 Scooter rental platform Bounce lays off staff- another high-flying startup lays off about 130 employees or 22% of its staff. Staff will receive severance pay for 3 months.
👎 Section 144 imposed in Mumbai- as COVID-19 cases spike, section 144 has been imposed in Mumbai till July 15 which prohibits movement and presence of more than one person in public places between 9pm-5am except for people with medical emergencies.
Hope you took a thing or two away from today’s edition. 😀
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