Adidas to sell Reebok to Authentic Brands for $2.5 bln

Adidas has announced to sell Reebok to Authentic Brands Group(ABG) for up to 2.1 billion euros ($2.5 billion) as the German sporting goods company concentrates on its core brand after a deal that did not deliver.

Reebok will keep its headquarters in Boston and continue operations in North and Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Russia, the U.S. brand management firm said in a statement, adding it will work closely with Adidas during the transition.

Previously, Adidas bought Reebok for $3.8 billion in 2006 to help compete with arch-rival Nike, but its sluggish performance prompted repeated calls from investors to sell the U.S. and Canada focused brand.

In the meantime, Adidas managed to eat into Nike’s dominance in the United States with its own brand, helped by partnership with celebrities like Kanye West, Beyonce and Pharrell Williams.

Jamie Salter, Founder, Chairman and CEO of ABG, said, “We’ve had our sights set on Reebok for many years, and we’re excited to finally bring this iconic brand into the fold. We are committed to preserving Reebok’s integrity, innovation, and values – including its presence in bricks and mortar.”

Source: Adidas to sell Reebok to Authentic Brands for $2.5 bln

Jensen Huang to Receive Semiconductor Industry’s Top Honor

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) today announced Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA and a trailblazer in building accelerated computing platforms, is the 2021 recipient of the industry’s highest honor, the Robert N. Noyce Award.

SIA presents the Noyce Award annually in recognition of a leader who has made outstanding contributions to the semiconductor industry in technology or public policy. Huang will accept the award at the SIA Awards Dinner on Nov. 18, 2021.

“Jensen Huang’s extraordinary vision and tireless execution have greatly strengthened our industry, revolutionized computing, and advanced artificial intelligence,” said John Neuffer, SIA president and CEO. “Jensen’s accomplishments have fueled countless innovations – from gaming to scientific computing to self-driving cars – and he continues to advance technologies that will transform our industry and the world. We’re pleased to recognize Jensen with the 2021 Robert N. Noyce Award for his many achievements in advancing semiconductor technology.”

Huang founded NVIDIA in 1993 and has served since its inception as CEO and a member of the board of directors. Starting out in 3D graphics, NVIDIA helped build the gaming market into the world’s largest entertainment industry. More recently, NVIDIA ignited modern AI – the next era of computing – with the GPU acting as the brain of computers, robots, and self-driving cars.

Source: Jensen Huang to Receive Semiconductor Industry’s Top Honor

Dailyhunt’s parent raises $450 Mn valued breaches $3 billion

VerSe Innovation Pvt. Ltd, the parent company of online news and content firm Dailyhunt and short video app Josh, has raised $450 million as a part of its new Series I funding round, just around six months after it secured Series H funding. VerSe Innovation said in a statement that its valuation has more than doubled in the past five months.

 

The company will use the fresh capital to consolidate its position in the content space, and deepen and broaden its artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science capabilities. However, Dailyhunt’s operating revenue reaches Rs 268 Cr in FY20 and the losses jump Rs 400 Cr mark. With this, VerSe Innovation’s valuation stands at nearly $3 billion.

 

With this, VerSe Innovation’s valuation stands at nearly $3 billion. Dailyhunt claims to serve over 300 million users every month whereas the short video app Josh claims to have 115 million monthly active users or MAUs and 56 million daily active users or DAUs.

Source: Dailyhunt’s parent raises $450 Mn valued breaches $3 billion

Reddit valued crosses raises $10 billion, after the fresh funding

Reddit has raised a fresh $410 million in funding, valuing it at more than $10 billion. The round, led by Fidelity Investments, has increased Reddit’s valuation from the $6 billion it achieved six months ago. The move gives Reddit more of a war chest to build its business and attract new users.

 

The company makes most of its money selling advertising, which appears in the feeds of users who browse the many “subreddits,” or topic-focused forums, across the site.

 

Steve Huffman, Reddit’s co-founder and chief executive, said more than 50 million people now visit Reddit daily, and the site has more than 100,000 active subreddits.

Source: Reddit valued crosses raises $10 billion, after the fresh funding

Extreme Networks may buy Infovista’s Ipanema SD-WAN business

Extreme Networks announced the intent to acquire a newly created entity called Ipanematech SAS (“Ipanema”), the SD-WAN division of Infovista. The acquisition will expand its ExtremeCloud portfolio, offering new cloud-managed SD-WAN and security solutions required to power the Infinite Enterprise.

Ipanema’s solution automatically and dynamically adjusts application traffic flows based on real-time network conditions, providing increased performance and improved quality of experience, even under diverse conditions across various types of cloud-managed WAN connectivity. Extreme plans to leverage these capabilities to establish an infinitely distributed and secure solution within the ExtremeCloud portfolio. This will add more flexibility, capability, and security when connecting locations, applications, and devices, enabling Extreme to provide the best possible experience to customers and their consumers, wherever they are in their journey toward the Infinite Enterprise.

“By acquiring Ipanema, Extreme extends its market leadership position in cloud with features that will help to reduce complexity for customers when it comes to operating and managing their increasingly distributed networks. Tapping into the fast-growing and developing market segments of cloud-managed SD-WAN, and, in the future SASE, accelerates our topline growth potential and expands our opportunity to grow recurring revenue with additional SaaS applications. Further, we’ll extend our go-to-market and R&D footprint in Europe, where Ipanema is an established player. We’re excited to welcome the Ipanema team to Extreme, where together we’ll drive towards our next phase of accelerating growth,” says Ed Meyercord, President and CEO, Extreme Networks.

Source: Extreme Networks may buy Infovista’s Ipanema SD-WAN business

Odisha to enhance the sports infrastructure with ₹693 crore investments

The Odisha Cabinet has approved the State Sports Infrastructure Development Project worth ₹693.35 crore, under which 89 multi-purpose indoor stadiums will be built. Odisha Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra said the stadiums will be used for multiple sports. The stadiums will be designed to withstand a wind speed of up to 200kmph so that in the event of natural calamities like flood, cyclone, the stadiums can be used as cyclone shelters.

The cabinet also appreciated the medal winners. “The Cabinet also mentioned special appreciation for the Indian Hockey for its spectacular performance,” Chief Secretary S C Mohapatra said after the meeting. The stadiums, under the Urban Sports Infrastructure Development Project, will be completed over the next 18 months. This will provide a major boost for the development of sports in the State, said Sports and Youth Services Minister Tusharkanti Behera.

These projects will be taken up in 85 urban areas including Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Rourkela under the 5T (team work, technology, transparency, timely completion leading to transformation) Initiative of the state government to transform the Sports field in Odisha. The stadiums to be named as Biju Patnaik Indoor stadium will come up at three municipal corporations (Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Rourkela), 30 municipalities and 52 NACs, he said.

Source: Odisha to enhance the sports infrastructure with ₹693 crore investments

Trishala Dutt on her 33rd birthday goes on a road trip with Sanjay Dutt

On Trishala Dutt’s 33rd birthday (August 10), Sanjay Dutt shared an old photo of the two of them in which the actor is seen holding his little daughter in his arms. Sharing the photo, Dutt wrote, “Life gave me the most wonderful gift in the form of you when I became a father. Even though you live so far away, we know that our bond has just been growing stronger. Happy Birthday, my little girl, @trishaladutt! (sic),” followed by a heart emoji.

The father-daughter duo went for a road trip in California. Trishala took to Instagram to share pictures and videos from her birthday celebration. In a photo, they are seen twinning in white. Going by the pictures and videos, it seems they had a lot of fun.

Read More: Trishala Dutt on her 33rd birthday goes on a road trip with Sanjay Dutt

Versa Networks Earns Black Unicorn Award for 2021

Versa Networks, a SaaS company and the leader in secure access service edge (SASE), today announced that it has earned a Black Unicorn Award for 2021.

 

Versa Networks competed against many of the industry’s leading providers of cybersecurity products and services for this prestigious award. The term “Black Unicorn” signifies a cybersecurity company that has the future potential to reach a $1 billion dollar market value as determined by private or public investment. These awards showcase those companies with this kind of incredible potential in the cybersecurity marketplace.

 

“It’s exciting to see Versa Networks has been named among other cybersecurity industry leaders in our third annual Black Unicorn awards,” said Judges Robert R. Ackerman Jr. of www.allegiscyber.com, David DeWalt of www.nightdragon.com, Dr. Peter Stephenson of Cyber Defense Labs and Gary Miliefsky of www.cyberdefensemediagroup.com.

Source: Versa Networks Earns Black Unicorn Award for 2021

RBI to impose fine on banks whose ATMs run out of cash from October 1st

In a big relief for the common citizens, the Reserve Bank of India has decided to charge penalties on banks for non-availability of cash in ATMs. The RBI has launched the ‘Scheme of Penalty for non-replenishment of ATMs’, which will come into effect in October. Under the scheme, a penalty of Rs 10,000 per ATM will be levied if they are out of cash for more than 10 hours per month. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has directed all banks and white label automated teller machine operators to ensure that ATMs never run out of cash.

 

Explaining why the new rule will be implemented, the RBI said in a statement: “A review of downtime of ATMs due to cash-outs was undertaken and it was observed that ATM operations affected by cash-outs lead to non-availability of cash and cause avoidable inconvenience to the members of the public. Therefore, been decided that the banks/ White Label ATM Operators (WLAOs) shall strengthen their systems/ mechanisms to monitor the availability of cash in ATMs and ensure timely replenishment to avoid cash-outs. Any non-compliance in this regard shall be viewed seriously and shall attract a monetary penalty.”

Source: RBI to impose fine on banks whose ATMs run out of cash from October 1st

Zomato’s Q1 consolidated net loss widens to Rs 356 cr

Zomato said its consolidated net loss widened to Rs 356 crore for the quarter ending June 30, 2021. Zomato got listed on stock markets last month, is backed by China’s Ant Group, reported a net loss of Rs 99.8 crore in the year-ago period. The Covid pandemic has hurt the company’s dining-out business and it incurred higher expenses in June quarter. Zomato said a second wave of Covid infections in India significantly impacted the dining-out business and reversed most of the gains the industry made in the previous quarter.

 

Consolidated revenue from operations rose 217% to Rs 844 crore as against Rs 266 crore a year ago. Non-cash employee stock ownership plan expenses increased in the first quarter and also affected results, the company added. Zomato’s total expenses more than tripled to Rs 1,260 crore.

Source: Zomato’s Q1 consolidated net loss widens to Rs 356 cr