S i2i   

MediaRing

$60m deal in just 3 days is just too rush, modi must have something in mind. vested again @ 24

 

 

The sale, this year’s biggest private-equity deal, values Skype at $2.75 billion.

the potential for MR


 


EBay to Sell Skype Stake to Group Led by Silver Lake (Update3)



By Joseph Galante and Katie Hoffmann

Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) -- EBay Inc. agreed to sell 65 percent of its Skype Internet-calling unit to an investor group led by Silver Lake for about $2 billion to focus on reviving sales at its main e-commerce site.

The buyers will pay $1.9 billion in cash and will also give EBay a $125 million note, the company said in a statement today. EBay, which had planned an initial public offering for Skype, will retain 35 percent of the business. The sale, this year’s biggest private-equity deal, values Skype at $2.75 billion.

The sale lessens Chief Executive Officer John Donahoe’s dependence on a unit that he has said doesn’t fit with the rest of EBay’s operations. His predecessor bought Skype for $2.6 billion in 2005 and wrote down its value a year later. Private investors will probably push Skype beyond the consumer market, said Vanessa Alvarez, a Frost & Sullivan Inc. analyst in Boston.

“They’ve really been making an initiative to move into the business space,” Alvarez said. “That’s the next step for this market.”

The other investors in the group are Andreessen Horowitz, a venture-capital firm headed by Internet pioneer Marc Andreessen; Index Ventures, a firm that invested in Skype before EBay bought it; and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which invested $300 million. The others didn’t disclose how much they paid.

EBay, based in San Jose, California, fell 46 cents, or 2.1 percent, to $21.68 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The stock has gained 55 percent this year.

Better Than IPO

Selling a stake in Skype is a better option than holding an IPO because it lets both companies focus on their main businesses, Donahoe said today in an interview.

Skype lets people make calls from their computers to land lines and mobile phones, as well as other computers. It makes money when users call regular phones, set up voice mail and use text-messaging services.

The service was founded in 2002 by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, creators of the Kazaa file-sharing software. EBay bought the company three years later because then-CEO Meg Whitman hoped that buyers and sellers on the auction site would use the service to talk to each other about expensive items.

The founders still own a piece of software used by the calling service and have accused EBay of breaching a licensing deal. Skype told a London court in April that it may have to suspend the service if it can’t resolve the fight.

‘No Synergies’

Even as Skype grew, EBay didn’t integrate the service into its e-commerce site. The company wrote down Skype’s value to $1.2 billion in 2006.

“It has no synergies with the business,” said Jeffrey Lindsay, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York. “Investors hated it from the minute it happened.”

EBay announced plans in April an IPO of Skype, scheduled for the first half of 2010. Donahoe said Skype’s value in an IPO may be more than $2 billion. Investors might have valued Skype at $2.5 billion at most in an IPO, Lindsay said.

“Now it’s like a bird in hand,” said Lindsay, who projects EBay’s shares will perform in line with the market and doesn’t own any.

EBay may use the proceeds for stock buybacks and small acquisitions, Lindsay said. The company is focused on improving its Internet-retail operations to stem customer defections to Amazon.com Inc. EBay bought South Korea’s Gmarket Inc. for $1.2 billion this year to expand its online-auctioneering business.

Skype’s Growth

Skype’s revenue grew 25 percent to $170 million in the second quarter. EBay predicts Skype’s sales will top $1 billion in 2011. The service added 37.3 million users in the three-month period, for a total of 480.5 million. In March, Skype started a service for business users, seeking growth beyond consumers.

The investor group’s expertise in technology and corporate development will accelerate Skype’s growth, Egon Durban, Silver Lake’s managing director, said in a separate release.

Silver Lake, based in Menlo Park, California, focuses on investments in technology companies. The firm, started in 1999, raised a $9.4 billion fund in 2007.

The firm’s investments include SunGard Data Systems Inc., Avago Technologies Ltd. and Avaya Inc. Semiconductor maker Avago, which Silver Lake bought with New York-based KKR & Co. LP in 2005, raised $745 million in an IPO last month.

Today’s deal is the biggest private-equity transaction in 2009, ahead of KKR’s $1.8 billion purchase of Anheuser-Busch InBev NV’s South Korean beer unit, according to Bloomberg data.

To contact the reporter on this story: Joseph Galante in San Francisco at jgalante3@bloomberg.net; Katie Hoffmann in New York at khoffmann4@bloomberg.net Last Updated: September 1, 2009 16:05 EDT

 

good news for voip


 

Vonage Obtains Application Approval for iTunes App Store

HOLMDEL, N.J., Sept 01, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- Vonage (NYSE: VG) has announced that Apple approved its mobile application for iPhone and iPod Touch. Vonage is currently conducting a beta test and general availability will be announced at a later date.

This new service, along with the recent launch of the Vonage World unlimited calling plan, continues Vonage's heritage of using innovative technology to create significant value for its current and future customers.

SOURCE Vonage

 

Shares gain 44%; Spice Global's Modi says one goal is to ensure dividends

By TEH SHI NING

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(SINGAPORE) MediaRing's share price surged 44.4 per cent yesterday, following news of Spice Global's purchase of a significant stake in the local internet telephony company for about $60 million. Spice Global is chaired by the flamboyant Indian telecom tycoon Bhupendra Kumar Modi, who divides his time between California, Singapore and India.

Dr Modi: eyes markets where MNCs do not focus and where people are first-time users of the Internet

MediaRing's stock opened at 23 cents, five cents above its pre-trading halt price of 18 cents, and hit a high of 27.5 cents before closing at 26 cents yesterday evening. It was also the second-most traded counter by volume yesterday.

Dr Modi, who took over as chairman of MediaRing's board of directors yesterday, said: 'With positive infusion of capital, management expertise, technology, ideas, and our dynamic ambition, we particularly intend to launch a series of innovative telecom and digital products, services and solutions.'

The investment was an important business decision for Spice Global, 'creating a first level footprint in Singapore and ASEAN', he added.

Spice Innovation Technologies spent $34.96 million to buy Venture One's shares in MediaRing at 21 cents each in cash, and also bought directors' share options from Koh Boon Hwee, Walter Sousa and Khaw Kheng Joo for $15.62 million, or 30 cents each.

These agreements, announced last Friday, were closed yesterday. 'I have never done such a fast deal in my life,' said Dr Modi, a scion of one of India's largest business houses, the Modi Group.

Spice also intends to buy the exercisable vested options of employees and certain independent directors of MediaRing at 30 cents a share. Depending on how many option holders decide to sell, Spice will hold at least 18.81 per cent, and up to 20.14 per cent of MediaRing's fully diluted share capital.

After an afternoon meeting with MediaRing's employees, Dr Modi hosted a media briefing at his penthouse at The Sail yesterday evening to share his plans.

He indicated that Spice plans to integrate MediaRing's voice-over-Internet-protocol (VOIP) technology with mobile telephony and expand into major markets including India, Indonesia and the Middle East. 'We want to go into markets where MNCs do not focus and where people are first-time users of the Internet,' he said.

Dr Modi said that another key goal was to ensure that MediaRing pays dividends to its shareholders, which it has not done so far, adding that one of his first steps after taking over the company was to form a 'shareholder value enhancement committee'. He hoped that dividends would start being paid by 2011. 'Our focus will be grow MediaRing's revenues; we will look for the winners and grow them. We hope to make one plus one not two, but eleven,' he said.

Spice Global, Dr Modi's group's global headquarters, relocated to Singapore last year. Being in the world's fastest growing region, or what he calls the i2i (Israel to Indonesia) region, would enable Spice to tap on the heart of the global growth platform for the future, he said.

Ashok Goyal and Suramya Gupta have been appointed MediaRing's new chief executive officer and chief financial officer respectively. Dr Modi's daughter Divya Modi and Mr Goyal have also been appointed directors.

 

currently this counter is overbought n near 52wk high, shud wait to come down before enter?

 

I keep buying this stock.

jm2212      ( Date: 01-Sep-2009 13:51) Posted: imagine his business connection and also he is going to inject more business into MR, sure this one will go higher, talk about dividen some more..... this is an additional incentive for share holder like me for the last 5 years

 

imagine his business connection and also he is going to inject more business into MR, sure this one will go higher, talk about dividen some more..... this is an additional incentive for share holder like me for the last 5 years

 

that's him ! .... The Straits Times said, he hold press conference at his house at The Sail... how cool is that?

I am very sure that he will make sure MediaRing not worth only 24 cents .......

not vested yet..

christan      ( Date: 31-Aug-2009 14:40) Posted:     He came, he saw, he bought for a cool $15m September 7, 2008 Whole-floor penthouse on 63rd storey is the most expensive buy so far at Marina Bay condo Even as the wind is being taken out of the sails in the high-end property market, one deal worth nearly $15.5 million was inked recently. Dr Bhupendra Kumar Modi, global chairman and founder of Indian conglomerate Spice Corp, bought a whole-floor penthouse unit at The Sail @ Marina Bay for a cool $15.463 million last month. The US$1.5 billion (S$2.2 billion) Spice Corp group makes cellphones and operates a chain of cellphone retail outlets and entertainment plazas in India. Last month’s deal makes the 5,834 sq ft penthouse - atop the 63-storey second tower of The Sail - the most expensive in the 1,111-unit condo, though not in Singapore. The price for the 99-year leasehold apartment works out to $2,650 per sq ft (psf). Next door, a bigger penthouse in the 99-year leasehold Marina Bay Residences was sold for $26.9 million, or $2,446 psf in late 2006. In Singapore, the record price is $5,600 psf for a 53rd-storey private apartment in The Orchard Residences. This works out to $28.27 million for the 5,048 sq ft, 99-year leasehold unit. On an absolute basis, a freehold apartment on the 19th storey of The Marq on Paterson Hill was sold for a whopping $31 million, but at a lower psf price of $5,100. Both deals were done during last year’s boom. Price was never an issue for Dr Modi, 59. It was love at first sight when he viewed the penthouse at The Sail, which is the size of nearly six four-room HDB flats. ‘You either like or don’t like it,’ he said of his property buy. ‘The deal was closed in two hours. Even my wife didn’t look at it.’ It comes with a lap pool, a private terrace, four bedrooms and sweeping views of the Marina Bay area. Designed by architect Peter Pran, The Sail will be the tallest residential development in Singapore when completed this year. Its other tower has 70 storeys. ‘I have a lot of global guests…I want to show them the best of Singapore and this flat allows me to do that,’ said Dr Modi, who became a permanent resident here on Aug 15, India’s Independence Day. He has just relocated the global headquarters of the Mumbai-based Spice Corp here. When renovation work at his penthouse is completed by the start of next year, he will move from his current base in Beverly Hills in the United States to Singapore. Over there, Dr Modi has an 8,000 sq ft house with five bedrooms and a pool. ‘There, I had my family with me. Here, my son wants to live separately,’ he said. His son Dilip, 32, is the group president for global operations at Spice Corp. One of his daughters Divya, 26, is its global director of finance. His son will set up home at one of his two older properties here - a $12.5 million unit at The Claymore, bought six years ago, and a $10.5 million Ardmore Park unit bought in 2006. Dr Modi has a fourth personal property in Singapore, a $10.5 million penthouse of around 5,000 sq ft in Sentosa Cove. He will use the unit, ‘right by the sea’, as a weekend home to get away from the madding crowd, ‘to read and to meditate’. All the four homes were bought in his personal capacity. He has three other company-owned properties in Singapore: an office property and two small residential properties in East Coast used as company guesthouses. Dr Modi said he will create an ‘environment’ in The Sail penthouse that is similar to that of his Beverly Hills house. That means turning The Sail penthouse into a swish ‘24/7′ entertainment zone. ‘I like to be with people all the time,’ said the man who led the world’s largest delegation of spiritual leaders to The Millennium World Peace Summit held at the United Nations General Assembly, and who is also president of the Maha Bodhi Society of India, an organisation aimed at reviving Buddhism in India. Dr Modi, a Buddhist, has reportedly demanded Indian citizenship for the Dalai Lama. He has a film-making firm called Buddha Films. He has also announced his plans to help revive the shopping and entertainment scene here. During Spice Corp’s opening here in the middle of last month, he said his group will invest US$200 million in a 24-hour entertainment and shopping complex, as well as a cellphone software development centre here. His purchase of The Sail has netted the seller, Dr Sudhir Gupta, $6.6 million. Dr Gupta, 50, is the New Delhi-born, Moscow-educated Singaporean businessman who made headlines when he bought the same unit in late 2005 for $8.8 million or $1,508 psf - then above the condo’s average price of $1,080 psf. Dr Gupta, who became a Singaporean in 1997, had also bought 21 other units at The Sail for an average price of $1,150 psf around that time. He was born into a middle-class family in New Delhi but went on to start a tyre company in Moscow. He later acquired a Dutch tyre-maker and listed the merged entity in London in 2005. Dr Modi, on the other hand, is the son of Mr Gujar Mal Modi, who founded one of India’s largest industrial conglomerates, the Modi Group. Dr Modi parted ways with his family in the early 1980s and, with the money from the split, started a series of joint ventures with global corporations, the first with Xerox. ‘He is from Delhi city so he knows us for a long time,’ said Dr Modi of Dr Gupta. Still, he bought his penthouse through a broker. ‘I never use my personal relationship. He didn’t know I bought it until later.’ Market watchers say the $15.463 million price tag is high given today’s weak property market. ‘This penthouse is unique as it’s on a whole floor, offering a 360-degree view and on a very high 63rd floor,’ said Knight Frank’s director of research and consultancy, Mr Nicholas Mak, explaining its high price. ‘But such transactions are rare and getting more so these days because the market has turned more cautious.’ There are many potential landlords at The Sail but few takers for now, market watchers said. Apart from possibly high asking rents, there is also construction work going on near the development. Dr Modi now has 13 properties all over the world. Apart from the four here, the rest are in Bangalore, Beijing, Beverly Hills, Mumbai, Kuala Lumpur, London, New Delhi, New York and Shenzhen. On his latest buy here, he said: ‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It is a location I like very much…It’s not something I bought to sell. I never sell my houses.’ 360-degree view ‘I have a lot of global guests… I want to show them the best of Singapore and this flat allows me to do that.’ - DR BHUPENDRA KUMAR MODI, global chairman and founder of Indian conglomerate Spice Corp Source : Sunday Times - 7 Sep 2008

 

So the Modi has taken over all the key appointments who resigned

 

Can push even higher?

The Director Vendors, namely, Mr Koh Boon Hwee, Mr Walter Sousa and Mr Khaw Kheng

Joo, have today exercised their vested options into an aggregate of 52,057,276 Director

Option Shares. Subsequent to the receipt of the Director Option Shares and pursuant to the

terms of the Transactions, the Director Vendors have transferred their respective portion of

Director Option Shares to Spice Global Holdings Pte. Ltd. (“Spice Global”), the assignee of

Spice, today. Venture One has also completed the sale and transfer of its entire shareholding

interest in the Company amounting to 187,912,767 shares to Spice today. Following the

Closing of the above Transactions, Spice currently holds approximately 14.73% of the issued

share capital of the Company on a fully diluted basis and may acquire and hold up to

approximately 16.06% of the share capital of the Company on a fully diluted basis depending

on the number of Employee Option Shares that Spice may purchase from the Employee

Option Holders. Following the Closing of the above Transactions, Spice Global currently holds

approximately 4.08% of the issued share capital of the Company on a fully diluted basis.

 

shortist wil b burnt when it cover back to 30

 

wonder why the fond become so small and very hard to read..

 

09/24/07

Monday, September 24, 2007

0.220

0.300

0.220

0.300

88,895,000

it happened last time

ROI25per      ( Date: 31-Aug-2009 14:11) Posted: wow, went up so high and so high vol i think it has pot to go to 31 as looking @ history and that time no good news, just normal spike     Date Date Open High Low Close Volume 09/21/07 Friday, September 21, 2007 0.220 0.230 0.220 0.220 2,426,000 09/24/07 Monday, September 24, 2007 0.220 0.300 0.220 0.300 88,895,000 09/25/07 Tuesday, September 25, 2007 0.290 0.310 0.280 0.280 58,072,000 09/26/07 Wednesday, September 26, 2007 0.280 0.290 0.280 0.290 10,376,000 09/27/07 Thursday, September 27, 2007 0.290 0.290 0.280 0.280 4,451,000 09/28/07 Friday, September 28, 2007 0.280 0.290 0.280 0.280 8,634,000 10/01/07 Monday, October 01, 2007 0.280 0.290 0.280 0.280 7,919,000 10/02/07 Tuesday, October 02, 2007 0.280 0.290 0.280 0.280 10,792,000

 

must get to know his daughter.. then can be mediaring vice chairman keke

 

Cheong to 30c shortist will be killed.

des_khor      ( Date: 31-Aug-2009 15:41) Posted: TML will make it! christan      ( Date: 31-Aug-2009 15:40) Posted: cheong ah 30 for today

 

TML will make it!

christan      ( Date: 31-Aug-2009 15:40) Posted: cheong ah 30 for today

 

cheong ah 30 for today

 

It is run of momentum and stay at his proce till end of the day.

 

 

 

He came, he saw, he bought for a cool $15m

September 7, 2008

Whole-floor penthouse on 63rd storey is the most expensive buy so far at Marina Bay condo

Even as the wind is being taken out of the sails in the high-end property market, one deal worth nearly $15.5 million was inked recently.

Dr Bhupendra Kumar Modi, global chairman and founder of Indian conglomerate Spice Corp, bought a whole-floor penthouse unit at The Sail @ Marina Bay for a cool $15.463 million last month.

The US$1.5 billion (S$2.2 billion) Spice Corp group makes cellphones and operates a chain of cellphone retail outlets and entertainment plazas in India.


Last month’s deal makes the 5,834 sq ft penthouse - atop the 63-storey second tower of The Sail - the most expensive in the 1,111-unit condo, though not in Singapore.

The price for the 99-year leasehold apartment works out to $2,650 per sq ft (psf). Next door, a bigger penthouse in the 99-year leasehold Marina Bay Residences was sold for $26.9 million, or $2,446 psf in late 2006.

In Singapore, the record price is $5,600 psf for a 53rd-storey private apartment in The Orchard Residences. This works out to $28.27 million for the 5,048 sq ft, 99-year leasehold unit.

On an absolute basis, a freehold apartment on the 19th storey of The Marq on Paterson Hill was sold for a whopping $31 million, but at a lower psf price of $5,100. Both deals were done during last year’s boom.

Price was never an issue for Dr Modi, 59. It was love at first sight when he viewed the penthouse at The Sail, which is the size of nearly six four-room HDB flats.

‘You either like or don’t like it,’ he said of his property buy. ‘The deal was closed in two hours. Even my wife didn’t look at it.’

It comes with a lap pool, a private terrace, four bedrooms and sweeping views of the Marina Bay area.

Designed by architect Peter Pran, The Sail will be the tallest residential development in Singapore when completed this year. Its other tower has 70 storeys.

‘I have a lot of global guests…I want to show them the best of Singapore and this flat allows me to do that,’ said Dr Modi, who became a permanent resident here on Aug 15, India’s Independence Day.

He has just relocated the global headquarters of the Mumbai-based Spice Corp here.

When renovation work at his penthouse is completed by the start of next year, he will move from his current base in Beverly Hills in the United States to Singapore.

Over there, Dr Modi has an 8,000 sq ft house with five bedrooms and a pool.

‘There, I had my family with me. Here, my son wants to live separately,’ he said.

His son Dilip, 32, is the group president for global operations at Spice Corp. One of his daughters Divya, 26, is its global director of finance.

His son will set up home at one of his two older properties here - a $12.5 million unit at The Claymore, bought six years ago, and a $10.5 million Ardmore Park unit bought in 2006.

Dr Modi has a fourth personal property in Singapore, a $10.5 million penthouse of around 5,000 sq ft in Sentosa Cove. He will use the unit, ‘right by the sea’, as a weekend home to get away from the madding crowd, ‘to read and to meditate’.

All the four homes were bought in his personal capacity.

He has three other company-owned properties in Singapore: an office property and two small residential properties in East Coast used as company guesthouses.

Dr Modi said he will create an ‘environment’ in The Sail penthouse that is similar to that of his Beverly Hills house.

That means turning The Sail penthouse into a swish ‘24/7′ entertainment zone.

‘I like to be with people all the time,’ said the man who led the world’s largest delegation of spiritual leaders to The Millennium World Peace Summit held at the United Nations General Assembly, and who is also president of the Maha Bodhi Society of India, an organisation aimed at reviving Buddhism in India.

Dr Modi, a Buddhist, has reportedly demanded Indian citizenship for the Dalai Lama. He has a film-making firm called Buddha Films.

He has also announced his plans to help revive the shopping and entertainment scene here.

During Spice Corp’s opening here in the middle of last month, he said his group will invest US$200 million in a 24-hour entertainment and shopping complex, as well as a cellphone software development centre here.

His purchase of The Sail has netted the seller, Dr Sudhir Gupta, $6.6 million.

Dr Gupta, 50, is the New Delhi-born, Moscow-educated Singaporean businessman who made headlines when he bought the same unit in late 2005 for $8.8 million or $1,508 psf - then above the condo’s average price of $1,080 psf.

Dr Gupta, who became a Singaporean in 1997, had also bought 21 other units at The Sail for an average price of $1,150 psf around that time.

He was born into a middle-class family in New Delhi but went on to start a tyre company in Moscow. He later acquired a Dutch tyre-maker and listed the merged entity in London in 2005.

Dr Modi, on the other hand, is the son of Mr Gujar Mal Modi, who founded one of India’s largest industrial conglomerates, the Modi Group.

Dr Modi parted ways with his family in the early 1980s and, with the money from the split, started a series of joint ventures with global corporations, the first with Xerox.

‘He is from Delhi city so he knows us for a long time,’ said Dr Modi of Dr Gupta. Still, he bought his penthouse through a broker.

‘I never use my personal relationship. He didn’t know I bought it until later.’

Market watchers say the $15.463 million price tag is high given today’s weak property market.

‘This penthouse is unique as it’s on a whole floor, offering a 360-degree view and on a very high 63rd floor,’ said Knight Frank’s director of research and consultancy, Mr Nicholas Mak, explaining its high price.

‘But such transactions are rare and getting more so these days because the market has turned more cautious.’

There are many potential landlords at The Sail but few takers for now, market watchers said. Apart from possibly high asking rents, there is also construction work going on near the development.

Dr Modi now has 13 properties all over the world. Apart from the four here, the rest are in Bangalore, Beijing, Beverly Hills, Mumbai, Kuala Lumpur, London, New Delhi, New York and Shenzhen.

On his latest buy here, he said: ‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It is a location I like very much…It’s not something I bought to sell. I never sell my houses.’


360-degree view

‘I have a lot of global guests… I want to show them the best of Singapore and this flat allows me to do that.’ - DR BHUPENDRA KUMAR MODI, global chairman and founder of Indian conglomerate Spice Corp

Source : Sunday Times - 7 Sep 2008

 

wow, went up so high and so high vol

i think it has pot to go to 31 as looking @ history and that time no good news, just normal spike


 

 

Date	Date	Open	High	Low	Close	Volume
09/21/07	Friday, September 21, 2007	0.220	0.230	0.220	0.220	2,426,000
09/24/07	Monday, September 24, 2007	0.220	0.300	0.220	0.300	88,895,000
09/25/07	Tuesday, September 25, 2007	0.290	0.310	0.280	0.280	58,072,000
09/26/07	Wednesday, September 26, 2007	0.280	0.290	0.280	0.290	10,376,000
09/27/07	Thursday, September 27, 2007	0.290	0.290	0.280	0.280	4,451,000
09/28/07	Friday, September 28, 2007	0.280	0.290	0.280	0.280	8,634,000
10/01/07	Monday, October 01, 2007	0.280	0.290	0.280	0.280	7,919,000
10/02/07	Tuesday, October 02, 2007	0.280	0.290	0.280	0.280	10,792,000