The Utterances of a Peculiar Mindset

Yahoo on Monday reiterated its rejection of a takeover offer from Microsoft, again calling it too low.
The company was responding to a letter from Microsoft that threatened to lower the price of its buyout offer and take it directly to Yahoo shareholders.
Although Microsoft’s offer was initially valued at $31 a share, a drop in the price of Microsoft shares has reduced the offer to just more than $29 a share.
Yahoo's resistance to a takeover by Microsoft looks foolhardy to some investors and Wall Street analysts. But the push-back may prove effective in the end—at least by forcing the suitor to cough up a few more bucks a share.
By delaying, Yahoo increases pressure on Microsoft to hike its bid to push the deal through before regulatory conditions grow unfavorable. Resistance also buys Yahoo time to introduce a product or service that stirs investor excitement, thereby raising its share price and making the 62% premium Microsoft offered over Yahoo's Jan. 31 stock price of 19.18 look like a lowball bid.
Microsoft also needs to win global regulatory approval for the deal. Delays give opponents more time to foment antitrust opposition, particularly in China, where an Aug. 1 law gives authorities greater leeway in scrutinizing large mergers that could be deemed anticompetitive. "Yahoo seeks to gain leverage by extending the time for regulatory approval internationally, thereby putting Microsoft in a position to lose the deal altogether," says Lee Westerfield, U.S. Internet analyst at BMO Capital Markets.

The two leading credit card companies in the world today are the competitors Visa and MasterCard. They both operate along very similar lines. While Visa can claim to have almost a billion cards issued, MasterCard has over twenty five thousand banks issuing its cards and it is difficult to find any difference in the number of locations worldwide that accept the cards, which is now estimated at over twenty million.

In fact, as far as most consumers are concerned, there is no real difference between the two. They are both very widely accepted in over one hundred and fifty countries and it is very rare to find a location that will accept one but not the other.

However, neither Visa nor MasterCard actually issue any credit cards themselves. They are both simply methods of payment. They rely on banks in various countries to issue credit cards that utilise these payment methods. Therefore, the interest rates, rewards, annual fees, and all other charges are issued by your bank and when you pay your bill you are paying it to the bank or institution that issued your card and not Visa or MasterCard.

How Visa and MasterCard make their money is by charging the retailer for using their payment method. So the truth of the matter is that a Visa issued by say the Bank of India will have very little to do with a Visa issued by other banks and may in fact by more similar to the Bank of India's MasterCard.

What this means for the vast majority of customers is that you do not have to overly concern yourself with whether a credit card is MasterCard or Visa. You would be better off concentrating on the interest and other charges on the card, the balance transfer possibilities or their reward scheme. You are very unlikely to ever be effected by the fact that it is one and not the other.

If you prefer, if you are going to have two credit cards, you may decide that you want one of them to be Visa and the other MasterCard, this means that if something drastic were to happen to one company, or if you were in the unlikely position of finding a location that accepts one but not the other, then you would have the option of paying with either.

At the end of the day however, much more depends on the bank that gave you the card, than on the type of card it is.

This is a very common question that arises in minds of every individual unaware of the stock market thing. Let me explain you the concept of stock market with a small story.

Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for Rs10. The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at Rs10 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. He further announced that he would now buy at Rs20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer rate increased to Rs25 and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey let alone catch it.

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at Rs50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him. In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at Rs35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell it to him for Rs50." The villagers squeezed up with all their savings to buy the monkeys. Then they never saw the man nor his assistant, only monkeys everywhere!! !!

Welcome to Stock Market!!!

This company has created waves of curiosity in my mind ever since i read about it taking over REpower and Areva (the windmill biggies in Europe) and about Tulasi Tanti (chairman of this firm) being 8th richest Indian. One thing that was surprising to me was a wind power business is so powerful in the world of Software boom. So just out of curiosity, I landed up to the website of Suzlon Energy Limited.
Here's what I got to read.

Suzlon Energy Limited traces its roots back to 1995, when the company took its first step on the renewable energy stage with its incorporation. Suzlon began its journey to the forefront of the wind energy industry with a small but significant project to supply wind turbine generators for a 3.34 MW windfarm project in Gujarat, India. In little over a decade, Suzlon has grown to rank as the world's 5th leading, and India's and Asia's leading manufacturer of wind turbines, with over 2,000 MW of wind turbine capacity supplied in India and across the world. The company registered revenues of USD 867 million, and a net worth of USD 617 million, CFS FY 2006, with a current order book exceeding USD 1.7 billion.

Suzlon is today a major force in the global wind industry, from humble beginnings in 1995, to ranking 5th worldwide, over 6% of the global market share in just over a decade. Already among the top five, Suzlon aims to rank amongst the top three wind power companies in the world by leveraging technological leadership and commercial acumen to exceed customer expectations. With its people strength, aggressive vertical integration strategy, strong R&D program, expanding manufacturing capability and a clear focus on global high growth markets, Suzlon is poised for continue its story of breathtaking growth the world over.

Well, I would love to work in a company like this after I complete my MBA. It will be one of the biggest growth opportunity for me. And besides it will be a chance for me to work in my topic of interest (non conventional energy).

Here is list of India's 10 richest persons, with their ages, company names and total worth.

1. Lakshmi Mittal, 55
Company: Mittal Steel
Net worth: $20bn

2. Azim Premji, 60
Company: Wipro Technologies
Net worth: $11bn

3. Mukesh Ambani, 48
Company: Reliance Industries
Net worth: $7bn

4. Anil Ambani, 46
Company: Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Enterprises
Net worth: $5.5bn

5. Kushal Pal Singh, 74
Company: Delhi Land & Finance
Net worth: $5bn

6. Sunil Mittal: Age 48
Company: Bharti Group
Net worth $4.9bn

7. Kumar Mangalam Birla, 38
Company: Aditya Birla Group
Net worth: $4.4bn

8. Tulsi Tanti, 47
Company: Suzlon Energy
Net worth: $3.7bn

9. Pallonji Mistry, 76
Company: multiple interests
Net worth: $3.3bn

10. Anurag Dikshit, 34
Company: PartyGaming
Net worth: $3.1bn