"India Calling Cards" - War Has Begun

Just last year, not long long ago, people like me had not much options when it used to come to "India Calling Cards". Reliance card used to cost 13 cents a minute (12.9 per min. precisely) to call to India. There were few other cards available but they suffered because of quality or hidden costs etc.

Off of my head, 3 million Indians must be staying in USA. Assuming on an average, per person uses 500 min. talk time a month to talk to folks back home in India.

This is 1.5 Bn min. per month or 18 Bn min. per year. So a rate of 13 cents a min. would fetch a fortune of 2.3 Bn USD. Add to it the growth factor -- we have seen 200% increases in the number of people flying to USA every year and making USA their abode for a short and or long term.

2.3 Bn USD with a growth rate of 200%...helluva money ... isn't it!

Now Reliance is no longer a monopolist here... the party was joined by Pingo, Airtell, and so many other wannabes... good news is the price per min. is getting pushed southwards.

Pingo offered a rate of 8 cents per min. with $5 free talk time on a referral, $20 free talk time on 3 friend referral. More the merrier!. My friends started spamming my mail boxes every other day with an invite from Pingo... Yo Pingo!!

Airtell.. dropped a bomb shell by launching a card with double talk time on purchase and on first recharge... rate is 7.6 .. more southwards...

Reliance slashed their rates to 7.8 (landline) and 7.4 (Reliance network)... straight 50% drop in rates ... welcome to survival driven market economy.

What next ... there are sites launched last week offering free calls to India as an entry strategy... Reliance is investing 1.6 Bn USD in building Optical Network Infrastructure across the Atlantic.

So the fun for consumers and war for Telecom providers has really begun ....over the period, these companies will cover up their fixed costs and pass on variable costs not to the end user but the advertiser.

I guess the business model which would evolve over next 3/4 years is -

"Free Call to India with a initial 30 second advertising audio clip"

That's it...it is called passing on benefits directly to customer. I welcome that day... would you mind a red carpet?

Who will "Rock-n-Rule" 2007

Last week of December... the time of year when some people dwelve into the year gone by, look forward to onset of next year, and come up with some resolutions. While some people sit back, take a look around and try to predict something. I guess this sitting back and predicting something sounds more interesting idea than making some resolutions and letting them die their natural death in a week or two of next year.

Hmm... So I want to predict something ... what should I predict though.... in this whole unpredictable World govened by misterious forces, and irrational equations, and complex cube root constants!

Still I want to predict something ... "Who will 'Rock-n-Rule' 2007?" (Other than me ... of course)...

Indian IT... too hackneyed... ruled out
Indian Stock Market ... too bumpy ... ruled out
Campus Placements ... to obvious. ruled out
Sachin ... may be... but that will be re-rock and re-rulling... so ruled out (sorry Sachin)
Laloo ... he rocked in 2006 by making Indian Railway a profitable organization... sure he will rock only if he gets time from his lecture series in Ivy League B-schools


How about "Indian Media Industry”... I guess, I got the right candidate for Rocking and Ruling 2007.

In 2006, we saw numerous examples and 'sansanikhej parda-fash' operations carried out by Media. Just to name a few ...it helped save life of Prince who spent 50 + Hrs in a 60 feet deep pit. .. It helped close the Jessika Lal murder case the way it should be closed.

So I guess Media has a way to go in 2007 ... keep rocking n ruling!

Oracle's "Good" Goodwill

Oracle's Balance sheet snapshot with Q2-2007 results
(http://www.oracle.com/corporate/investor_relations/2q07- pressrelease- dec.pdf)

Oracle reported a healthy financial status for this quarter. However, what intrigued me is the Goodwill of $10,682 millions posted by this Enterprise Apps and DataBase Systems major, that is even more than what it did last year.

In simple accounting terms, goodwill is the premium which acquiring company pays to acquire another company. This premium is calculated by subtracting the on book value from purchase price.

E.g. If company 'Please Acquire Me Inc.' has 1000 outstanding shares & market value is 10 per share. On book value of the 'Please Acquire Me Inc.' is 1,000 x 10 = $ 10,000.

Now a company 'I'm gonna eat you alive Inc.' wants to acquire 'Please Acquire Me Inc.’. How Sweet! The Board of directors approves a merger at $12 per share. So 'I'm gonna eat you alive Inc.' pays 1,000 x 12 = $12,000 to eat the other small fish.

The premium is 12000-10000 = $2000. Company will record this premium paid on its Balance Sheet as Goodwill.

Now coming back to our own Oracle Inc. balance sheet. Oracle has a whooping goodwill of 36% of its total Assets. Helluva Goodwill!

It again comes to me as no surprise giving Oracle was and is on a buying spree. Ranging from acquisition of PeopleSoft last year to Innobase recently. Guess, not only paying premium but also paying increasing amount of premium is a part of Larry's strategy. Look at what it paid last year -- $ 9,808 millions. It should be noted that every year the Goodwill gets amortized by 1/40th of its amount or in other words goodwill lasts for 40 years. However, we see a northbound change in Goodwill that implies even after amortization we end up in having an increase in Goodwill.

Let us wait until next Q to watch the Goodwill saga. Who knows Oracle may acquire something else by that time. Good going Goodwill!

Inspiring Inspiron

My new laptop ...Dell - Inspiron 6400 ( Techie review will follow soon ...)

Configuration

Inspiron 6400
Intel® Core™ Duo T2050 (1.60GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 533MHz FSB)

LCD Panel
15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display with TrueLife™

Memory
1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm

Video Card
128MB ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1300 HyperMemory™

Hard Drive
120GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive

Let the Gr$$neri Prevail everywhere

Flash back to 1982: Time Magazine selected Computer as "Machine of the Year"

Today: Dec 18, 2006: Time Magazine selects "You" as Person of Year.

I've one more reason to give a pat on my back (I usually love to have such reason around)...

I remember my first little crush on "C" in FE Computer Lab, arrival of my PC in my hostel room I-118, my infatuations with 8085/86 Assembly in Microprocessor Lab ... first time I used net in 1999...first time I used MS-Word in my HOD's cabin in 1999 ... time flies so fast ...the word software got swept under carpet even faster... it is IT now.. Software is a nerdy word whereas IT is a sleeker and Gr$$ner version of it...!

I am not the first one to say that IT is a revolution, but then you know, we have had our revolutions... but none of the revolutions created wealth for almost everbody who was a part of it no matter how remotely.

Wealth creation reminds me of "Grass on the other side" syndrome... brush your shoulders with tens of thousands of guys in the same rank... do almost same kinda work ... produce almost same kinda output ... chase same kinda dreams...and get same kinda paycheck...! Want a delta in at least the paycheck thing... make a SWITCH...have green and make grin! (So bad alliteration!)

Anyway my point is, let us behave like a good "Person of the year" and wish gr$$neri prevail everywhere... welcome to your Everywhere Evergreen Everlasting world!

Toe Tapping

एका तळ्यात होती, बदके पिले सुरेख
होते कुरुप वेडे, पिल्लू तयात एक

कोणी न त्यास घेई, खेळावयास संगे
सर्वाहूनी निराळे ते वेगळे तरंगे

दावूनि बोट त्याला, म्हणती हसून लोक
आहे कुरुप वेडे, पिल्लू तयात एक

पिल्लास दुःख भारी, भोळे रडे स्वतःशी
भावंड ना विचारी, सांगेल ते कुणाशी ?

जे ते तयास टोची, दावी उगाच धाक
आहे कुरुप वेडे, पिल्लू तयात एक

एके दिनी परंतू, पिल्लास त्या कळाले
भय वेड पार त्याचे, वार्‍यासवे पळाले

पाण्यात पाहताना, चोरुनिया क्षणैक
त्याचेच त्या कळाले, तो राजहंस एक