VARINDIA IT MAGAZINE

Vodafone wishes to sell part of Indus stake to fund VI:  Vodafone Group Plc   is considering selling a small portion of its 28.12% stake in Indus Towers to inject capital into its ailing Indian telecom joint venture,   Vodafone Idea (Vi) . This comes even as Vodafone Idea’s potential global lenders are pressing the telco's co-promoters - the UK telecom major and India’s   Aditya Birla Group   - for some capital infusion to improve their overall comfort levels, three people with direct knowledge said.   The Vodafone Group has previously said that it would not infuse any fresh equity into Vi. But its stake in the now-listed Indus Towers is an existing and separate telecom-related investment in India, which may make it easier for the British telco to convince shareholders, if required.   According to sources, formalising the final funding terms, leading to a binding term sheet, is expected next month, but the timeline also depends on how soon one or both promoters signal intent to inf

Quantum acquires Square Box Systems to help businesses get more value from unstructured data:  Quantum Corp.   has announced that it has acquired   Square Box Systems Ltd , a specialist in data cataloging, user collaboration, and digital asset management software. The acquisition builds on Quantum's recently expanded portfolio that classifies, manages, and protects data across its lifecycle by adding technology advancements to further enrich video, digital images and other forms of unstructured data. This acquisition will strengthen Quantum's ability to provide software solutions to help companies unlock the business value contained in their data, both on-premises and in the cloud.   Square Box Systems' flagship product is CatDV , an agile media management and workflow automation software platform that helps organizations with large volumes of media and metadata to organize, communicate and collaborate more effectively. CatDV leverages artificial intelligence and machine le

Tencent partnership will expedite Geely's autonomous and smart tech development : Following the news that China-based Geely Auto Group has partnered with technology conglomerate Tencent Holdings Ltd;

US Guv asks Australia to scrap proposed laws to make Facebook, Google pay for news: A Australia has been instructed by the U.S. government to scrap proposed laws that will make it the first country in the world to force   Facebook Inc   and   Alphabet Inc’s Google   to pay for news sourced from local media outlets. In a submission asking the government to “suspend” the plans, assistant U.S. trade representatives Daniel Bahar and Karl Ehlers, suggested Australia instead “further study the markets, and if appropriate, develop a voluntary code.”   As per the law, which has broad political support and is currently before a senate committee, Google and Facebook will be subject to mandatory price arbitration if a commercial agreement on payments to Australian media cannot be reached.   “The  U.S. Government  is concerned that an attempt, through legislation, to regulate the competitive positions of specific players ... to the clear detriment of two U.S. firms, may result in harmful outcomes,

COVID-19vaccine sale: Pharma giants Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna set to touch the sky by 2023:  2021 is all set to become quite a year for the pharma companies leading the   COVID-19 vaccine race , with significant revenues on the line. The most significant players in the market, pharma giants   Pfizer   and   Moderna   are set for the lion's share of 2021 vaccine sales.   According to data presented by Finaria.it, BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines sales are expected to generate $14.7bn in revenue by 2023.   The call for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments has become louder than ever, with countries worldwide facing the full force of the pandemic's second wave.   As of January 11, there were over one thousand drugs and vaccines in development targeting the coronavirus disease, revealed the Pharma Intelligence data. More than 60% of them were still in the preclinical phase. However, three candidates were in the pre-registration phase, one candidate registered, and anothe

Cruise bags $2 billion from Microsoft in new equity round:  Cruise   has raised $2 billion in a new equity round that has pushed its valuation up to $30 billion and delivered   Microsoft   as an investor and partner. GM, Honda and other institutional investors have also put more capital into Cruise as the autonomous vehicle company inches closer to commercializing its technology.   Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella  said in a statement, “Advances in digital technology are redefining every aspect of our work and life, including how we move people and goods. As Cruise and GM’s preferred cloud, we will apply the power of Azure to help them scale and make autonomous transportation mainstream.”   While Microsoft’s capital is important, the partnership might provide equal and longer-term value for Cruise, at least in the two companies’ views. Under the long-term strategic partnership, Cruise will use Azure, Microsoft’s cloud and edge computing platform, for its yet-to-be launched autonomous vehicl