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Quote of the Day ? Best time to buy is when the gloom is deepest

Microsoft CEO willing to walk away from ***** bid

Italy, April 23: Microsoft Corp is prepared to walk away from its $43.6 billion bid for ***** Inc if the two sides can't agree on a price, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Wednesday.

Speaking at a technology conference near Milan, Ballmer said *****'s better-than-expected first-quarter results, reported on Tuesday, have not changed Microsoft's view of *****'s value.

Microsoft sees ***** as a way to compete with arch-rival Google Inc in the Internet search and advertising arena, but it has limits to what it is willing to pay to get a deal done.

"We're prepared to move forward without a merger with *****," Ballmer said. "We think the best way to move forward quickly (and gain critical mass against Google) is to come together with *****."

"Hopefully that works. But if it doesn't, we go forward," he said. "Time is money. We made (that) clear in the last letter we sent."

In that letter, Ballmer set a Saturday deadline for *****'s board to accept a deal with Microsoft or face a lower bid that Microsoft would take directly to *****'s shareholders. *****'s board of directors has said Microsoft's cash-and-stock offer significantly undervalues the company.

Analysts downplayed the possibility of Microsoft walking away from the deal.

"It is unlikely Microsoft will walk away, as the company has a strategic imperative to establish a more significant presence in Internet advertising," Marianne Wolk, analyst with Susquehanna Financial Group, wrote in a report on Wednesday.

The value of Microsoft's offer for ***** has fallen to $30.36 a share from $31.00 because of a decline in Microsoft shares. In order to regain the bid's full value, Microsoft's stock would have to rise to $32.60, the closing share price on January 29, a day before Microsoft presented its unsolicited offer to *****'s board.

Shares of Microsoft were up 98 cents, or 3.24 percent, to $31.23 in afternoon Nasdaq trade. The company is to report its results for the March quarter on Thursday.

***** shares were below Microsoft's offer, down 46 cents to $28.08 on the Nasdaq.

Asked whether Microsoft could make a bid for Google, Ballmer said in part that he did not think Google would be interested and that such a bid would raise regulatory issues. ***** and Microsoft rank second and third in Web search, respectively. Google is No. 1.

In the video game sector, Ballmer was asked if Microsoft plans to alter its Xbox prices in light of a cut in prices for its Xbox 360 video game console in Europe last month.

"We're pretty comfortable right now with Xbox pricing," he said.

Boeing profit climbs 38% in Q1

Chicago, April 23: Boeing Co. says it earned USD 1.2 billion in the first quarter, a 38 per cent increase from the same period last year as its backlog of orders grew to a new record of USD 346 billion.

The airplane maker said today its profit was USD 1.62 per share for the quarter ending march 31. That compares with USD 877 million, or USD 1.13 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose four per cent to USD 16 billion. But that was short of Wall Street's revenue expectations.

On average, analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected the world's no. 2 commercial airplane maker to earn USD 1.35 per share on USD 16.5 billion in revenue.

The Chicago-based aerospace company also reaffirmed its 2008 guidance.

UK-based property player Dandara to partner with ICICI Bank

New Delhi, April 23: UK's real estate firm Dandara is likely to tie-up with ICICI Bank to woo high net worth individuals in India for investing in UK's real estate market.

The 200 million pound UK-based company is in talks with the largest private sector bank of India to endorse Dandara's properties and market them to ICICI customers.

"The due diligence process is going on and in next 2-3 months we expect the deal to close. As per the agreement we will be able to reach the customers of ICICI Bank, which has a very wide network in the country," Dandara Holdings Ltd group investment sales director Seamus Nuget told reporters here.

Dandara in partnership with baron group international is exploring potential investors from India, especially high net worth individuals with Rs 10-20 crore net asset value to invest in residential properties in India.

"The bank has around 900 relationship managers, with each one of them handling around 200 HNIS, we expect good response from the Indian market," baron group international director Nayan Bavishi said. Baron is an alliance of Dandara, which provides services to services.

While Dandara builds properties, its partner baron group provides services to clients like legal coordination, valuation of property for mortgage purpose, furnishing, renting services and others.

The baron group has already set up its office in Mumbai, for servicing Dandara clients in India.

Dandara, which develops residential and commercial properties in the UK, is offering four of its ongoing projects to Indians for investment, including those in Scotland, Glasgow and Manchester.

Maruti Q4 net at Rs 297.7 crore

New Delhi, April 24: The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India on Thursday reported a Net Profit of Rs 297.7 crore for the fourth quarter ended December 2008.

Although the company's Net Profit in the corresponding quarter the previous fiscal stood at Rs 448.6 crore, MSI said the figures were not comparable due to the adoption of a new depreciation policy, which has shortened cycles for its equipment and tooling assets.

Total income, net of excise stood at Rs 5069.9 crore during the quarter, it said.

For the fiscal 2007-08, Net Profit stood at Rs 1730.8 crore, while the total income for the fiscal stood at Rs 18823.8 crore.

Under the new policy adopted by the company, the full depreciation for equipment and tooling assets will now be 8 years instead of 13 years previously.

41% US luxury consumers to spend less this year: Survey

New Delhi, April 24: Nearly 41 percent of wealthy Americans may spend less on luxury items in the next one year, amid fears of a weakening economy, says a new study.

”41 percent of luxury consumers are likely to spend less on luxury goods in the next 12 months compared to only 13 percent who expect to spend more," according to `luxury consumer confidence` survey conducted by US-based unity marketing.

With the fall in consumer spending, the Luxury Consumption Index (LCI) plummeted 9.1 points to a historic low of 54.4 points for the first quarter 2008. This follows a precipitous drop of 23.8 points at the close of the fourth quarter 2007, it said.

LCI tracks how luxury consumers feel and helps marketers anticipate consumers spending in the coming quarters.

Unity Marketing President Pam Danziger said, "the LCI started to measure flagging consumer confidence among the affluent about a year ago at the end of March".

"But their spending on luxury did not begin to retreat until a little later in the year. We expect luxury consumers to be conservative in their spending at least until the presidential election when new leadership may provide an emotional lift," he noted.

Of 1,258 consumers with income of USD 100,000 or more polled, about 71 percent said, "the overall financial health of the country is worse now than it was three months ago".

As a result, the doldrums in the US luxury market are expected to continue for at least the next six months, the survey projected.

Ford swings to $100M profit in 1st-quarter, beats view
Thursday April 24, 7:35 am ET

Ford rides strong earnings in Europe and South America to swing to $100M profit in 1st-quarter

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) -- Ford Motor Co. surprised Wall Street on Thursday with a $100 million profit in the first quarter as strong results from Europe and South America helped offset the impact of a slumping U.S. economy that cut car and truck sales in its main market.
The company also said Thursday its latest round of early retirement and buyout offers netted 4,200 hourly workers, fewer than Ford had targeted.

Ford says it earned 5 cents per share in the January-March period. The No. 2 U.S.-based automaker lost $282 million, or 15 cents a share, in the same period last year.

Excluding special items, the company said it made $525 million after taxes, or 20 cents per share. That beat Wall Street's expectations. Thirteen analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had predicted a loss of 16 cents per share.

It was Ford's first profitable quarter since the second quarter of 2007 when it made $750 million. Ford reported a full-year loss of $2.7 billion last year, and it cautioned that the rest of this year will be tough.

"The remainder of 2008 will be a challenge but we are cautiously optimistic despite the external challenges," CEO Alan Mulally said in a statement. "Our plan is working."

Ford also lowered its industrywide U.S. vehicle sales forecast for the full year to a range of 15.3 million to 15.6 million. In January it had expected full-year sales of 16 million.

The profit came despite a $45 million pretax loss in Ford's core North American automotive market. That was an improvement over a $613 million loss in the year-ago quarter, driven by $1.2 billion in cost reductions.

Company spokesman Mark Truby said Ford may offer additional buyout and early retirement packages on a plant-by-plant basis to further reduce its blue-collar work force.

Ford reported first quarter revenue of $39.4 billion, down from $43 billion a year ago due to the sale of its Jaguar-Land Rover and Aston Martin units. Excluding the sale, revenue would have been up slightly, the company said.

Reliance Money ties up with Triveni group`s retail chain

New Delhi, April 24: Reliance Money, a financial products distribution firm, on Thursday said it has tied up with Triveni group-promoted retail chain, in a move aimed at tapping the potential of rural and semi-urban markets.

Under the alliance, the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group would distribute financial products and services through the outlets of Triveni retail chain, Khushali Bazaar, in Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal, a company statement said.

"Financial retailing in rural India is still dominated by middlemen, money lenders and intermediaries. Concurrently, per capita income of rural population is expected to double by 2012.

"Zeroing in on this opportunity of serving a burgeoning rural middle class, we at reliance money are happy to partner with Triveni Khushali Bazaar to enhance our reach and tap the rural potential," Reliance Money director and CEO Sudip Bandyopadhyay said.

Reliance Money would set up shop-in-shops in all 42 Triveni Khushali Bazaars, which offers farm and household products and financial services, to sell its product including life insurance, general insurance and mutual fund products, it said.

The partnership will help Reliance Money take its slew of financial products and services to the rural and semi-urban masses and provide customers additional convenient locations for completing their financial transactions, Bandyopadhyay said.

Unitech gets start-up spectrum for Tamil Nadu

New Delhi, April 24: Real estate major Unitech, which has a pan-Indian telecom license, on Thursday said it has received the start-up spectrum to roll out services in Tamil Nadu. Department of Telecom (DoT) has allotted 4.4 mhz of spectrum in 1800mhz band in Tamil Nadu, including Chennai, the company said in a notice to BSE.

The government in January issued the letters of intent (LoIs) to 8 subsidiaries of the company for issuance of Unified Access Services Licences (UASL) in respect of all the 22 telecom circles across the country.

All the subsidiaries later paid the requisite entry fees of Rs 1,658 crore, financial bank guarantees of Rs 630 crore and performance bank guarantees of Rs 252 crore.

Out of 120 LOI issued to companies in January license agreement has been signed with 16 companies, according to DoT.

Since spectrum is not available in busy circles, the government has been giving spectrum to new operators wherever it is available to start services

HDFC Bank Q4 net up by 37.1%

Mumbai, April 24: Private sector lender HDFC Bank on Thursday posted a Net Profit of Rs 471.1 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2008, up by 37.1 per cent from Rs 343.57 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

The bank earned a total income of Rs 3,505.5 crore for the quarter as against Rs 2,321 crore in the corresponding quarter, an increase of 51.2 per cent, the bank said here in a release.

For FY'08, the Net Profit stood at Rs 1,590.2 crore compared with Rs 1,141.45 crore, up by 39.3 per cent. Total income for the year stood at Rs 12,398.2 crore against Rs 8,164.2 crore in the previous year.

The bank's board has recommended an enhanced dividend of 85 per cent for the year ended March 31 against 70 per cent for the previous year, subject to approval by shareholders.

The net interest income for the fourth quarter increased by 55.7 per cent to Rs 1,642.1 crore, driven by average asset growth of 50.3 per cent and a core net interest margin of around 4.4 per cent.

Other incomes of the bank grew 39.3 per cent from Rs 394.4 crore to Rs 549.3 crore, comprising Rs 490.4 crore from fee and commissions alone.

Provisions and contingencies for the quarter almost doubled to Rs 465.1 crore from Rs 267.1 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

The provisioning comprises Rs 293 crore for non-performing assets and general provisions for standard assets and Rs 172.7 crore for tax, legal and other contingencies.