Business

Jerry Hunter, who was named the chief operating officer just over a year ago, is retiring and not being replaced, the company said late on Tuesday.

Snap reported a total revenue of nearly $1.2 billion, an increase of 5 per cent from the same period last year.

The daily active users of Snapchat increased 12 per cent year-over-year to reach 406 million.

“We are focused on improving our advertising platform to drive higher return on investment for our advertising partners, and we have evolved our go-to-market efforts to better serve our partners and drive customer success,” said Snap CEO Evan Spiegel.

COO Hunter joined Snap seven years ago and served an important role in building the company’s engineering and business structures.

He will continue to support Snap through July 1, 2024 to help ensure the transition.

“I am deeply grateful to Jerry for the meaningful contributions he has made over his many years at Snap,” said Spiegel. “His work to improve our advertising platform, serve our community, and build a strong team has helped lay the foundation for our future growth.”

According to Snap, since launching ‘My AI’, our AI-powered chatbot, over 200 million people have sent over 20 billion messages.

“We are seeing more creators posting content to Snapchat, with nearly three times more public Stories posted in the US compared to Q3 2022. We are focused on accelerating and diversifying our revenue growth,” said the company.

The company anticipates that Snapchat's daily active users will reach 410-412 million in the December quarter.

--IANS

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The revenue in the PC vertical was $13.7 billion and increased 3 per cent, according to the company.

Windows revenue increased 5 per cent with Windows OEM revenue growth of 4 per cent, which is a surprise increase as PC sales went down this year globally.

"With copilots, we are making the age of AI real for people and businesses everywhere," said Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft.

"We are rapidly infusing AI across every layer of the tech stack and for every role and business process to drive productivity gains for our customers,” he said in a statement late on Tuesday.

Revenue in Intelligent Cloud was $24.3 billion, anincrease of 19 per cent.

Server products and cloud services revenue increased 21 per cent driven by Azure and other cloud services revenue growth of 29 per cent.

“Consistent execution by our sales teams and partners drove a strong start to the fiscal year with Microsoft Cloud revenue of $31.8 billion, up 24 per cent (up 23 per cent in constant currency) year-over-year,” said Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft.

LinkedIn revenue increased 8 per cent while devices revenue decreased 22 per cent.

However, Xbox content and services revenue increased 13 per cent.

Microsoft returned $9.1 billion to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends in the first quarter of fiscal year 2024.

--IANS

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The court said the use of ‘Puma’ trademark and logo by the defendant on inferior quality products will lead to erosion of brand equity.

The plaintiff, Puma, a German company had filed a suit seeking injunction against counterfeit products manufactured and sold under the mark ‘Puma’ by defendant, ‘Kumkum Shoes’, a trading business in Agra.

The court noted as per the local commissioner’s report, ‘Kumkum Shoes’ made a profit of nearly Rs 18 lakh to Rs 19 lakh from selling counterfeit ‘Puma’ shoes and the suit was liable to be decreed in favour of ‘Puma’ with damages of Rs 10 lakh and costs of Rs 2 lakh.

The local commissioner’s report revealed that the defendant was running a full-scale manufacturing operation with respect to counterfeit ‘Puma’ shoes. As the defendant chose to stay away from the proceedings, the court passed the decree of permanent injunction.

--IANS

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With over 23 lakh styles from over 6,000 brands, the fourth edition of the Myntra BFF offers one of the biggest assortment of selections across fashion, beauty and lifestyle ever and expects over 8 million customers to shop during the festive carnival.

Over 5 lakh new styles have been added from brands that are popular among non-metro customers.

To meet the expected surge in traffic and provide a smooth and seamless shopping journey to every shopper coming to the platform, Myntra has scaled its systems to handle 1 million concurrent users at peak.

This year, the platform will also provide access to constructs that are designed to showcase festive-oriented categories like Showstoppers, BFF Specials, and Rewards.

The platform has unique hero collections for ‘BFF Specials’ along with over 150 new launches, cross-brand collaborations and interesting CelebXBrand crossovers.

In addition to fashion and beauty, some of the emerging categories geared to witness rising demand this festive season include home products, luggage, travel and accessories, footwear, and handbags.

This BFF will see over 1.6 lakh styles and 50 new made-in-India D2C brands which are celebrated under the Myntra Rising STARS banner and will offer a differentiated selection, with unique styles for both men and women across fashion, footwear, accessories and home.

With the growing popularity and love for the catalog, some leading brands like Outcast, Nap Chief, BeYours and Veshti Company will showcase irresistible value-offers.

Indian wear is an integral part of one’s festive wardrobe and the men's and women’s segments have been scaled to 4.5 lakh styles, to cater to the festive demand ahead of the Big Fashion Festival.

The collection houses a range of mass premium and premium styles across light and heavy Indian wear, and fusion wear which are seeing an increase in demand from customers.

Fusion collection which comprises 45k styles from 1000+ brands is expected to trend among GenZ customers looking for an Indo-western look. International brands continue to gain traction among both men and women.

Myntra has added over 20 sought-after international brands launched this year that are also participating in BFF for the first time, along with the robust portfolio of 400+ global brands across diverse categories such as accessories, home, menswear, and sports footwear.

Some of the recently on-boarded international brands on Myntra include Anko, Saucony, Gymshark, Champion, BoohooMAN, DKNY, and Anne Klien, among others. Offering 90,000+ products across 1,500+ brands, including 200+ international brands in its beauty and personal care (BPC) portfolio, Myntra will enable shoppers with robust beauty offerings during the Big Fashion Festival.

The Home category is expected to see increased traction from fashion-forward customers this festive season. This has seen Myntra add over 50,000 new home products to its catalogue of 750+ brands and more than 2 lakh aesthetically pleasing and trend-first styles.

Myntra will cater to the festive needs of GenZ customers. As part of FWD, Myntra’s immersive fashion proposition for Gen-Z, is an array of uber-trendy brands offering over 67,000 styles.

Prominent brands that are expected to trend during the Big Fashion Festival are Lulu & Sky, H&M, Trendyol, bebe, Tokyo Talkies, Hersheinbox, Street 9, Athena, Bonkers Corner, Freakins and Boohoo, among others. Some of the brands offering their new collections include: Apparel - The adidas official Team India jersey, Rare Rabbit’s Walk 2.0 collection, UNRL, Jack&Jones Ranveer X Urban Racer, The Kurta Company, Beyours, Oasis, Nike Jordan apparels, Gymshark, Jaipur KurtiXMadhuri Dixit, Janasya, Boohooman, MANGO MAN and H&M among others Beauty - Colorbar - Take me as I am, makeup range, L’oreal Paris Infallible Matte Resistance Lipsticks among others Footwear - Nike, Saucony, Champion, adidas Luggage, Travel and Accessories - Urban Forest, Stylestry, Enoki by Baggit, Wildcraft Trolley, Ann Klien Home - Anko, Starbucks Watches and Wearables - FossilXDisney, CK, Lacoste, Hugo.

The festive event provides access to unprecedented value propositions by brands, along with ingenious customer engagement propositions like the Curtain Raiser deals, Grand Opening Hours, Brand Mania and limited-time deal constructs.

Customers can look forward to Myntra Revolutionary Price which includes 10 per cent bank offers in addition to attractive value offers.

During the event, customers will also have access to an additional 15 per cent off on using Myntra's co-branded credit card in association with Kotak Mahindra Bank, to unlock more value on their festive purchases. Additionally, the shoppers can avail payment offers through partners like ICICI, Kotak, Paytm and Cred.

This BFF, customers shopping above a certain amount, will be able to avail exciting rewards which may include gold coins, trolleys and backpacks, etc.

"As the nation earnestly awaits the festive season, at Myntra, we are geared to roll out our biggest edition of the ‘Big Fashion Festival’. This is an opportunity for the industry to gain momentum where brands are able to infuse newness with their offerings while also strengthening their base of shoppers. This is also an opportunity for our ecosystem partners, including big and small brands, Kirana partners and artisans to grow further," said Nandita Sinha, CEO, Myntra.

As part of the festive hiring ramp-up, Myntra has increased its women hiring, taking it to 21 per cent while creating employment opportunities for women from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and has extended additional income opportunities. The hiring spans rural locations and villages in states like Haryana, Telangana, West Bengal, and Karnataka.

In addition to the supply chain, of the total hires in the contact centre this festive season, 45 per cent will be women hires.

Myntra’s robust supply chain network, consisting of 17,000 MENSA (Myntra Extended Network for Service Augmentation), the platform’s neighbourhood Kirana store partners, will play a pivotal role in fulfilling festive orders across the country.

--IANS

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More than four months after commencing the work on its first project at Kakatiya Mega Textile Park (KMTP) in Warangal, it laid the foundation stone for the second cluster at Seetharampur in Rangareddy district near Hyderabad.

Kitex, which is the second-largest manufacturer of infant wear in the world, is setting up this cluster with a capacity of seven lakh garments per day.

The company thus intends to create a Guinness record. The plant will come up on 250 acres with an investment of Rs 1,200 crore. It will employ more than 11,000 people directly, more than 80 per cent of which will be women employees.

The entire investment will be operational by December 2024.

Minister for industries KT Rama Rao along with his ministerial colleagues P Sabitha Indra Reddy and P Mahender Reddy participated in the ground-breaking ceremony.

Kitex’s first investment project in Telangana is coming up at Kakatiya Mega Textile Park, Warangal where construction of a similar sized integrated fibre-to-apparel manufacturing cluster is ongoing in full swing and expected to commence operations by December 2023.

The company is investing Rs.1,600 crore in the Warangal plant. The cluster, spread over 200 acres, will employ more than 15,000 people directly, more than 80 per cent of which will be women employees. Kerala-based Kitex signed MoU with Telangana government in 2021 to invest Rs.2,406 crore in the state. --IANS

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The company’s Board also approved the simplification and consolidation of its capital structure.

Tata Motors closed Q1FY24 with a total income of Rs 103,596.62 crore (against Q1FY23's Rs72,822.02 crore) and a net profit of Rs 3,300.65 crore (against a net loss of Rs.4,950.97 crore).

The Tata Motors Board at their meeting on Tuesday gave their nod for the reduction of capital by cancelling the entire 'A’ Ordinary shares and issue and alloting Ordinary shares that would rank pari passu with the existing Ordinary shares.

The holders of 'A' Ordinary shares will get seven ordinary shares for every 10 shares ('A' Ordinary shares) held by them as capital reduction consideration.

According to Tata Motors, after the delisting of the American Depository Shares from the New York Stock Exchange as of January 23, 2023, the company has two types of listed equity securities, namely Ordinary Shares and 'A' Ordinary Shares.

The 'A' Ordinary Shares carry 1/10th of voting rights of Ordinary Shares and are entitled to five percentage points higher dividend. These shares were first issued by Tata Motors in 2008 and subsequently in a further QIP in 2010 and rights issue in 2015.

Regulatory changes have, since then, restricted the issuance of such instruments with differential voting rights and Tata Motors remains the only large listed company with such an instrument, the company said.

The capital restructuring will lead to a reduction in the outstanding equity shares by 4.2 per cent, making it value accretive for all shareholders, the company claimed. Post capital rejig, the voting rights of the promoter and promoter group will go down to 42.64 per cent from 45.81 per cent while that of the public will go up to 57.36 per cent from 54.19 per cent.

--IANS

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"Booking issue has been resolved now. (Website) irctc.co.in/nget/train-sea and Rail connect app is working now. Inconvenience caused is deeply regretted," the IRCTC said in a tweet.

On Monday morning, the public sector undertaking under the Railways Ministry, in a tweet, said: "Due to technical reasons, the ticketing service is not available on IRCTC site and App".

"Our technical team is resolving the issue. We will notify as soon as the technical issue is fixed. Alternatively tickets can be booked through other B2C players like Amazon, Makemytrip etc," it added.

--IANS

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"I don't want people saying, 'Are you okay? Are you all right?' Like a wounded animal, I just rather go in a cave by myself. Lick my wounds," the 43-year-old comedian explained in an interview with The Washington Post, reports aceshowbiz.com.

During the chat, the 'Like A Boss' actress also talked about her eighth miscarriage.

She recalled talking to a nurse, "Well, I'm going to be honest with you. This would be my eighth one." She went on to say, "I've got a uterus shaped like a heart. It just won't keep anything in."

Tiffany also weighed in on her starting a career in the music industry, revealing that she had been working on an album, which her longtime friend Snoop Dogg aims to release on Death Row Records.

About Tiffany's move, Snoop said: "I watched her hustle, struggle to get to the top of the mountain. I watched her take a couple of hits and then find herself climbing back. Now music is another mountaintop she wants to try to climb."

Elsewhere in the interview, Tiffany unveiled that she is opening a healthful food market around the Crenshaw neighborhood in Los Angeles.

While discussing her Disney film 'Haunted Mansion', she said: "I've always dreamed of being in a Disney movie, and this is the biggest movie I've ever been in. But it's not as important as the grocery store. I don't know if movies change people's lives."

Miscarriage and career aside, the 'Self Made' actress gave her two cents on her breakup with Common.

Noting that the rapper called it quits through a phone call, she admitted, "It wasn't mutual. It was more him saying, 'I think this relationship has run its course.' And I was like, 'Okay. Like you gonna be a 50-year-old single man. Okay?' "

--IANS

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According to tech major IBM, detection and escalation costs jumped 45 per cent over this same time frame, representing the highest portion of breach costs, and indicating a shift towards more complex breach investigations.

At nearly 22 per cent, the most common attack type in India was phishing, followed by stolen or compromised credentials (16 per cent).

Social engineering was the costliest root cause of breaches at Rs 19.1 crore, followed by malicious insider threats, which amounted to about Rs 18.8 crore.

"The report shows that security AI and automation had the biggest impact on keeping breach costs down and cutting time off the investigation -- and yet a majority of organizations in India still haven't deployed these technologies," said Viswanath Ramaswamy, Vice President, Technology, IBM India & South Asia.

Moreover, the report showed that about 28 per cent of data breaches resulted in the loss of data spanning multiple types of environments in India (i.e., public cloud, private cloud, on-prem) -- indicating that attackers were able to compromise multiple environments while avoiding detection.

The report also found that while 95 per cent of organisations studied globally have experienced more than one breach, these breached organisations were more likely to pass incident costs onto consumers (57 per cent) than to increase security investments (51 per cent).

In India, companies with extensive use of AI and automation experienced a data breach lifecycle that was 153 days shorter compared to studied organizations that have not deployed these technologies (225 days versus 378 days).

Organisations that used security AI and automation extensively saw nearly Rs 9.5 crore less in data breach costs than organisations that did not use these technologies.

--IANS

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Banks are said to be worried about their exposures to Vedanta Limited and its financial health in the midst of this high dividend spree.

VEDL’s net debt stood at Rs 592b and net debt/EBITDA stood at 1.88x in 1QFY24 as against 1.28x as on Mar’23. Vedanta paid out Rs 18.5 as the first interim dividend for FY24, Motilal Oswal Financial Services said in a note.

Vedanta’s consolidated net sales stood at Rs 337b (down 12 per cent YoY), in line with estimate of Rs 334b, Motilal Oswal Financial Services said in a note.

Revenue was adversely impacted by the reduction in commodity prices and lower volumes, which was partially offset by higher premiums and favorable exchange rate movement.

Vedanta’s consolidated EBITDA stood at Rs 64b (down 37 per cent YoY), 6 per cent miss to estimate of Rs 68b. The aluminum vertical was down 19 per cent YoY to Rs 18b; HZL was down 35 per cent QoQ to Rs 33b and the oil and gas vertical was down 45 per cent YoY to Rs 11b. All the verticals (except copper) were profitable during the quarter.

LME prices across the non-ferrous portfolio were down QoQ. Zinc/Lead/ Copper/Aluminum prices were down 19 per cent/1 per cent/5 per cent/6 per cent on a QoQ basis, whereas silver was up 7 per cent QoQ.

--IANS

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