Dotcom: What's Hot!

STATS & STRATS
What's Hot!

The Ashok Soota-led MindTree touches stratospheric valuation heights, while Sify, with its truckload of liabilities, puts parent Satyam on a tough wicket. And PSU oil majors enter the 'safe-surf' domain.

Team BT

e-trend

Ashok Soota,
Chairman & CEO, MindTree Consulting: dollops of dollars

Here is a start-up, barely two years old, whose current valuations are bringing back memories of the good old tech boom days. The (ex-Wipro exec) Ashok Soota-promoted e-consultancy, MindTree Consulting, is set to complete its second round of funding at a whopping post money valuation of over $140 million. With international investment majors Capital International and Templeton having finalised the deal, the second round is expected to see a fresh fund infusion to the tune of at least $14 million into the company. And the actual figure could be much higher.

The Easy Riders

INTERVIEW: Sreekant Khandekar, Co-founder, Agencyfaqs!

Though company sources refused to divulge details, market analysts say the valuation reflects the headway MindTree has made recently in tapping the US markets. The company coo Subroto Bagchi relocated to the US recently.

In its first round of funding, MindTree raised a total of $9.5 million in August 1999 from Walden, and Global Technology Ventures (GTV). Reports indicate that US-based fund Capital International will pump in $9 million, while Templeton is likely to invest around $2-$3 million. Walden, and GTV are also tipped to participate in the second round to maintain their stake in the company.

While market sources claim Walden too will chip in with another $5 million, GTV, the VC funding arm of Sivan Securities, is making a token investment of around $2 million. The promoters of MindTree are also likely to bring in personal funds. This could take the stage-ii funding to over $20 million. Well, these consultants sure know their onions.

e-news

Forget the success of its ads issue, Satyam Computer Services is finding it tough to manage the liabilities that its Internet flagship Satyam Infoway (Sify) is accumulating. The yet-to-become-profitable Sify, in addition to its operating losses, is contributing to Satyam's losses with its frenzied acquisitions.

Including the amortisation of goodwill and deferred stock option expenses, Sify posted an operating loss of $38.9 million for the nine months ended December. As a result, Satyam had to post a net loss of $29.38 million under the US GAAP. Meanwhile, Satyam might face another minor hiccup when the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation decides to exercise its put option to sell Sify's shares back to Satyam. The Singapore Corporation has bought 86,800 ads of Sify from Satyam at a price of $36 per share in June 2000. Well, didn't you know that 'if' is the middle-word in Sify?

Is this an oil slick on the Net or what? Petroleum India International (PII), a consortium of 10 public sector oil companies, and the US based Sharp Technologies have entered into a 50:50 joint venture to develop content filtering software. According to reports, the arrangement between Sharp Technologies and PII stipulates that development and distribution of software in the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan, will be done by PII. For this, PII will be paid a royalty of 20 per cent, while Sharp Technologies will hold the software product rights in the US market.

Issue Contents Write to us Subscription Syndication