Ola Cabs Acquires Rival TaxiForSure In Quest For A Million Rideshare Cab Drivers In India

By  Harichandan Arakali @bangalorejourno h.arakali@ibtimes.com

Mumbai, India People look at a screen displaying India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presenting the budget, on the facade of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building in Mumbai February 28, 2015. Jaitley on Saturday announced a budget that put boosting growth before painful reforms, slowing the pace of fiscal deficit cuts and seeking to put domestic and foreign capital to work. The budget also announced measures to support technology startups. Reuters/Shailesh Andrade

BANGALORE, India -- Ola Cabs, India’s top rideshare provider, has acquired smaller rival TaxiForSure in its quest to have a million drivers on its network across India over the next three to five years. Ola Cabs currently has about 100,000 drivers operating cars affiliated to the company.

Mumbai-based ANI Technologies, Ola’s parent company, has agreed to pay $200 million in cash and stock for Bangalore’s TaxiForSure, the startups announced in a

Samsung Galaxy S6 Price Details: 2015 Flagship Likely Not As Expensive As Expected

By  Fionna Agomuoh @FionnaatIBT f.agomuoh@ibtimes.com

Samsung Galaxy S6 Screen Cap: Samsung/YouTube

Better start saving your pennies if you want to buy the Samsung Galaxy S6 -- and especially if you want to purchase the Galaxy S6 Edge. The price of these new smartphones may increase in accordance with their many new hardware, software and design features.
Reports prior to the Galaxy S6 announcement suggested the device and its curved display variant could easily exceed $1,000 in price. Luckily, for the Galaxy S6 at least, that may not be the case. The 32GB base model Galaxy S6 should sell for 699 euros, the tech website SamMobile said.
This is a price hike from the 650-euro initial price of the base model Galaxy S5 in Europe, but it’s not as bad as the 749-euro starting price rumors suggested. The price converted to dollars, would be $781; however, it is likely the Galaxy S6 would cost $699 in the U.S., similar to t

Modi Forgoes Seizing Oil’s Drop to Engineer Deep Fiscal Fix

by Kartikay MehrotraUnni Krishnan

With the strongest election mandate in 30 years and oil prices sliding, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a chance to quickly get India’s finances under control in his first full-year budget. Photographer Graham Crouch/Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- With the strongest election mandate in 30 years and oil prices sliding, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a chance to quickly get India’s finances under control in his first full-year budget.
On Saturday, several weeks after his party got crushed in a local Delhi election, Modi chose a more incremental route with a wider deficit projection to boost growth in Asia’s third-biggest economy. He’s spending more on infrastructure to spur an investment cycle, buying time for longer-term moves on taxes and subsidies to make the country more competitive.
India’s financial health now hinges on Modi’s ability to kickstart projects, better target subsidies, increase asset sales and pass stalled legislation -- objectives that in the past have fallen short of plans. Since taking office he’s failed to win parliamentary approval for a bill to

Zuckerberg in Barcelona Highlights Widening U.S.-Europe Tech Gap

by Marie MawadCornelius Rahn

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Photographer: Erin Lubin/Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- The globe’s biggest telecommunications trade show is held every year in Barcelona, intended to celebrate Europe’s pivotal role in the genesis of the mobile industry. This year, the top speakers are two Americans who symbolize pressing threats for the region’s carriers.
As more than 85,000 attendees gather for the four-day Mobile World Congress -- among them Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler, who will be giving keynote addresses -- executives are fretting over the growing digital divide between Europe and the U.S.
The event is emblematic of the malaise that has descended on European telecoms since the halcyon days of GSM, the first global standard for mobile, which was developed in the region. Since then, European companies have fallen behind U.S. and Asian rivals such as Apple Inc., Google Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. and more recently, China’s Xiaomi Corp.

“It’s typically European to debate for ages while things are being

Germany Makes Up With France After Putin's Actions Clear the Air

by Arne DelfsHelene Fouquet

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande.

Photographer: Thierry Chesnot/Getty Images

(Bloomberg) -- Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande have finally found that they get along.
After publicly backing Hollande’s opponent for the French presidency, Merkel disagreed with France on the euro-area economy’s direction, Germany’s trade surplus and the merits of austerity. Now, almost three years after Hollande took office, the leaders have reconciled their differences, according to government officials in Paris and Berlin with direct knowledge of their interaction.
The rapprochement is in large part thanks to President Vladimir Putin’s incursions into Ukraine and the joint French-German efforts to resolve the conflict, the officials said, asking not to be named discussing private matters. Bound by their statecraft in all-night peace talks in Minsk last month, Merkel and Hollande are also now in tune on Greece, on fighting terrorism and the

European Stocks Little Changed at Highest Level Since July 2007

by Alan SoughleySofia Horta E Costa

(Bloomberg) -- European stocks were little changed, after a fourth weekly rally pushed equities to the highest level in more than seven years, as investors focus on economic reports to gauge the strength of the region’s economy.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 0.1 percent to 392.55 at 9:04 a.m. in London. The equity benchmark advanced 2.6 percent last week, extending its February gain to 6.4 percent, amid better-than-expected financial results from companies including Airbus Group NV, and U.S. consumer sentiment data.
The Stoxx 600 has rallied 15 percent in 2015, its best-ever start to a year, as Greece reached a bailout deal and the European Central Bank announced quantitative easing.

Investors will watch economic reports today, with the euro area updating on consumer prices, while the U.S. releases private income and spending data. A report on U.S. manufacturing is also due, along with factory gauges across the euro region.
Futures on the Nasdaq 100 Index rose 0.2 percent. The Nasdaq Composite Index on Friday capped its biggest monthly advance since January 2012. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dropped 0.1 percent after Chinese policy makers cut interest rates for the second time in three months to spur growth.
Among stocks moving on corporate news, Vivendi SA slid 5.1 percent. The French conglomerate that’s refocusing on media businesses said it plans to return about 5.7 billion euros ($6.4 billion) to investors after selling more than $30 billion of assets.
A gauge of energy stocks fell from a three-month high, as oil prices declined after OPEC output exceeded its quota for a ninth month in February.

CEO’s Job at Stake as Citigroup Awaits Fed Stress Tests

by Dakin Campbell

Michael Corbat, chief executive officer of Citigroup Inc., speaks during a Bloomberg Television interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 24, 2013. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Michael Corbat will know in less than two weeks if he should start looking for new work.
That’s when Citigroup Inc.’s chief executive officer will hear whether the Federal Reserve has blessed his 2015 capital plan after rejecting last year’s. Corbat has said he should be held accountable, and analysts and investors say he might lose his job if the New York-based firm fails a second time.
With stakes so high, most analysts expect Citigroup has taken the necessary steps -- including spending more than $180 million to improve its capital-planning processes -- to ensure it passes. Instead, attention turned last week to bigger rival Bank of America Corp. after a filing that showed regulators had demanded changes to some of that lender’s models.

“Investors should be very cautious of any red flags which surround capital planning,” Brennan Hawken, an analyst at UBS Group AG, said in a research note that c

NXP Semiconductors to Acquire Freescale for $11.8 Billion

by Ed HammondJack ClarkIan King

(Bloomberg) -- Dutch chipmaker NXP Semiconductors NV agreed to buy smaller U.S. rival Freescale Semiconductor Ltd. for about $11.8 billion in cash and stock to expand its market share in chips for cars and reduce costs.
Freescale shareholders will get $6.25 in cash and 0.3521 of an NXP share for each Freescale common share, the companies said Sunday. The deal values Freescale at $36.14 a share, almost matching the stock’s closing price Feb. 27 of $36.11. Including Austin, Texas-based Freescale’s debt, the purchase price is about $16.7 billion.
Both companies are major suppliers of chips for use in cars and are seeking to benefit as vehicles become more advanced, requiring more processors and electronics. The merged company, with about $10 billion in annual sales, would be the world’s eighth-largest chipmaker and would pose a bigger threat to Texas Instruments Inc. in the market for analog chips.

“If you want to make cars drive by themselves, then

Dollar Climbs as Yuan Slides After Rate Cut; Oil Retreats

by Emma O'BrienNick Gentle

A customer holds a ten-yuan banknote as he waits to pay for a purchase in a hutong in Beijing. Photographer: Nelson Ching/Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- The dollar rallied, climbing to a two-year high versus the yuan after China’s interest-rate cut underscored diverging economic outlooks for the U.S. versus the rest of the world. U.S. index futures rose with gold, while oil retreated following its first monthly gain since June.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index increased 0.2 percent at 8:21 a.m. in London, gaining versus 14 of 16 major peers as China’s currency traded at its weakest level since October 2012 and the euro slipped 0.1 percent. Gold climbed 0.4 percent and the yield on 10-year Treasuries rose two basis points. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed 0.2 percent, while futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index added 0.3 percent. Oil in New York and London dropped at least 0.9 percent.
China’s second rate cut in 14 weeks was the latest in a wave of global easing that’s pushed the Bloomberg dollar gauge toward its highest level in at least

Draghi Touch Is Golden for Stocks as Europe Gets $11 Billion

by Sofia Horta E Costa

ECB President Mario Draghi.

Photographer: Martin Leissl/Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Why buy European stocks? For Kerry Craig, the answer is, why not?
Craig, a global strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management in London, says European shares look like a bargain next to bonds. Corporate profits are picking up, while yields -- already negative in some countries -- can scarcely go lower. Plus, investors’ worst fears about Greece and Ukraine have receded.
“A lot of the negative stuff that was supposed to blow up in the past month didn’t,” Craig says. “We’re getting to the point where even a bond guy will tell you to buy stocks.”

His view is ratified by what’s known as the Fed model, a valuation metric that compares the equity market’s earnings yield to the rate on government bonds. While the measure isn’t u