Cyber criminals are increasingly focusing their attacks on the hundreds of millions of users of social networks and on loopholes in bank security systems, security software vendors said on Wednesday. At the same time, spam e-mail messages rose sharply in the third quarter, Symantec Corp said.
And as Facebook reached 300 million accounts in September, social networks and social media continued to attract criminals, smaller research firm F-Secure said in its quarterly virus report. "As Twitter has grown in popularity, it has been increasingly targeted by worms, spam and account hijacking," F-Secure said.
Cyber criminals choose targets that are widely used, allowing them to go after the largest number of potential victims. "Cyber criminals continue to follow the money," said Yuval Ben-Itzhak, technology chief at a small security software vendor Finjan, who on Wednesday revealed a new method criminals use to steal money from bank accounts and hide their tracks.
Finjan said it expects a growing trend of using new software that forges on-screen bank statements, concealing the true transaction amount to dupe account holders and their banks, and then sends the stolen money to money mules accounts.
"With the combination of using sophisticated Trojans for the theft and money mules to transfer stolen money to their accounts, they minimize their chances of being detected," Ben-Itzhak said.
The amount of spam in all e-mail traffic rose to 88.1 percent in the third quarter from 81 percent a year ago, said Symantec's MessageLabs in its quarterly report. MessageLabs said botnets are now responsible for sending 87.9 percent of all spam. Hackers take advantage of the PC vulnerability by booby- trapping websites with a malicious code that loads onto computers.
Infected PCs are commandeered into a botnet, a network of hijacked computers. They are used for identity theft, spamming and other cyber crimes. "Over the past year, we have seen a number of ISP's (Internet service providers) taken offline for hosting botnet activity resulting in a case of sink or swim and an ensuing shift in botnet power," MessageLabs analyst Paul Wood said in a statement.
"However, this won't always be the case as botnet technology has also evolved since the end of 2008 and the most recent ISP closures now have less of an impact on resulting activity as downtime now only lasts a few hours rather than weeks or months as before," Wood said.
Agencies
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Jobless Americans climb to 551,000 in September 2009
The count of Americans seeking unemployment benefits for the first time climbed unexpectedly by 17,000 to 551,000 for the week ended September 26, indicating that labour market remains strained despite easing economic conditions.
The figures come a day after official data showed that the US economy contracted less than expected at 0.7 per cent i the June quarter.
According to the US Labor Department, the number of initial claims for jobless benefits rose 17,000 to 551,000 for the week ended September 26.
In the previous week, the figure stood at 534,000. As per the data, the four-week moving average was 548,000.
However, the count of those receiving unemployment benefits dropped as much as 70,000 to 6,090,000 for the week ended September 19.
"The 4-week moving average was 6,154,500, a decrease of 39,250 from the preceding week's revised average of 6,193,750," the Labor Department said in a statement today.
Yesterday, payroll-processing firm ADP in its National Employment Report said that 254,000 jobs evaporated in the American private sector in September.
However, the report noted that the decrease was the smallest since July 2008.
Agencies
The figures come a day after official data showed that the US economy contracted less than expected at 0.7 per cent i the June quarter.
According to the US Labor Department, the number of initial claims for jobless benefits rose 17,000 to 551,000 for the week ended September 26.
In the previous week, the figure stood at 534,000. As per the data, the four-week moving average was 548,000.
However, the count of those receiving unemployment benefits dropped as much as 70,000 to 6,090,000 for the week ended September 19.
"The 4-week moving average was 6,154,500, a decrease of 39,250 from the preceding week's revised average of 6,193,750," the Labor Department said in a statement today.
Yesterday, payroll-processing firm ADP in its National Employment Report said that 254,000 jobs evaporated in the American private sector in September.
However, the report noted that the decrease was the smallest since July 2008.
Agencies
Jobless rate in Europe touches 10 years high
The unemployment rate in the 16-nation euro zone soared to a ten-year high of 9.6 per cent in August, as the region continued to feel the tremors of the financial turmoil.
Euro zone -- a group of 16 nations that share the common currency euro -- has seen the jobless pace jump to 9.6 per cent in August, little higher than 9.5 per cent in July.
In August last year, the rate stood at 7.6 per cent. Eurostat, the official statistical agency for the European community, today said the unemployment rate is the highest since March 1999.
A staggering 15.165 million people were jobless in the region in August.
In the European Union region, the unemployment rate in August was at 9.1 per cent, the highest since March 2004. The same stood at nine per cent in July.
As many as 21.872 million people were without a job in the 27-nation European Union in August.
"Compared with August 2008, unemployment went up by 5.008 million in the EU and by 3.224 million in the euro area," Eurostat said in the statement.
Among the countries, the unemployment rate was the highest in Spain at 18.9 per cent and Latvia (18.3 per cent), while the lowest was seen in the Netherlands at 3.5 per cent.
Meanwhile, many of the major economies including France and Germany have exited recession and the region as a whole is slowly seeing signs of stabilisation.
Agencies
Euro zone -- a group of 16 nations that share the common currency euro -- has seen the jobless pace jump to 9.6 per cent in August, little higher than 9.5 per cent in July.
In August last year, the rate stood at 7.6 per cent. Eurostat, the official statistical agency for the European community, today said the unemployment rate is the highest since March 1999.
A staggering 15.165 million people were jobless in the region in August.
In the European Union region, the unemployment rate in August was at 9.1 per cent, the highest since March 2004. The same stood at nine per cent in July.
As many as 21.872 million people were without a job in the 27-nation European Union in August.
"Compared with August 2008, unemployment went up by 5.008 million in the EU and by 3.224 million in the euro area," Eurostat said in the statement.
Among the countries, the unemployment rate was the highest in Spain at 18.9 per cent and Latvia (18.3 per cent), while the lowest was seen in the Netherlands at 3.5 per cent.
Meanwhile, many of the major economies including France and Germany have exited recession and the region as a whole is slowly seeing signs of stabilisation.
Agencies
Cloud computing helps organization to remain more secure
Today the biggest challenges for CIO’s are managing and securing the exponentially growing information in the IT infrastructure that supports their business and providing centralized access to multiple data centers across the globe, said Manjunath Kashi, Director, Enterprise Computing Group, Unisys. He said a secure cloud, whether private or public, can enable them to do both more effectively. Excerpts of the interview.
1. How does cloud computing help address CIO challenges?
The biggest challenges for CIO’s today are managing and securing the exponentially growing information in the IT infrastructure that supports their business and providing centralized access to multiple data centers across the globe. A secure cloud, whether private or public, can enable them to do both more effectively.
Unisys believes that cloud computing will revolutionize the way enterprises obtain business and IT services and change the kind of payback they get from their IT investments. In a severely constrained global economy, the prospect of de-capitalizing enterprise IT, deferring and avoiding operational costs, fixing the IT bottleneck and more effectively mapping availability of IT resources to fluctuating business demands provide powerful incentives to adopt cloud computing.
The major attributes and benefits of cloud computing are the following:
1. Multi-tenant –the capability to process the needs of multiple users with shared resources, dynamically and transparently;
2. Elastic and scalable –resources can be expanded and contracted as needed;
3. Metered/rented – to a certain extent, “pay only for what you use”;
4. Self-provisioned – “self-check-in,” at least to some degree;
5. Internet-based – accessible by using Internet technology, usually over the public Internet;
6. “X” as a service [with “X” being software or infrastructure, for example] – The details/concerns of implementation are abstracted for the customer.
Clients and prospects consistently tell Unisys that concerns about security is the major impediments to adopting cloud computing for business needs. Secure, then, is the additional benefit that differentiates Unisys’ strategy and solutions for cloud computing from other cloud offerings available in the market. The word “secure” refers to providing an overall reduction in risk due to greater security protocols and tools for data in motion (transiting the infrastructure), data at rest (in storage networks) and data in process. Unisys offers those through the Stealth data protection technology in its Secure Cloud Solution.
2. What kind of applications do you expect enterprises to host on the cloud? Why?
Most enterprises have until now been comfortable moving only test and development suites to the cloud, because they don’t involve transmission of sensitive data outside internal firewalls. Unisys Secure Cloud Solution – a managed public cloud service with an unmatched level of data protection based on unique bit-splitting technology called Stealth – enables enterprise clients to securely move conventional business applications into a managed, shared cloud service without costly, time-consuming rewrites or other alterations. Those applications often include secure or sensitive data, such as human resources, financial, customer and healthcare information. The Unisys Secure Cloud Solution can thus help clients reduce capital and operating expenditures and protect their investment in critical business applications.
3. Benefits of cloud computing to the large and small enterprises?
Cloud computing – especially as embodied in Unisys strategy and solutions portfolio – can benefit organizations of all sizes. The Unisys approach enables clients to choose the type of data center computing services that best meet their business objectives, from self-managed, automated IT infrastructures to Unisys-managed cloud services. Using Unisys services and technologies, organizations can create a private cloud within their data centers, a public cloud through secure Unisys-managed cloud solutions, or a hybrid cloud solution combining the best of both private and Unisys-managed cloud services.
Clients and prospects in organizations of all sizes tell Unisys that they see great operational and economic value in moving enterprise applications and data to the cloud. However, they have lacked the comprehensive security to make them confident in doing so.
Unisys cloud computing strategy and solutions focus on helping clients overcome those security concerns. We like to say that security is in Unisys DNA, data center transformation and application modernization are our heritage, and outsourcing services tailored to the client’s specific business needs are our forté. Unisys cloud computing strategy draws on all those core capabilities to help clients break through the barriers to adoption and gain a full range of options for cloud services while safeguarding their operations and lowering IT costs.
4. How secure are Unisys’s cloud computing offerings? What are the special features that Unisys offers on the cloud?
Most of the current cloud computing solutions lack the comprehensive security that gives clients the confidence in moving enterprise applications and data into the cloud.
Unisys’ cloud computing solutions provide the much-required extra layer of security. Underpinning our strategy is Unisys Stealth security solution, an innovative, patent-pending data protection technology, initially designed for government applications and now available to commercial clients too. The Unisys Stealth technology cloaks data through multiple levels of authentication and encryption, bit-splitting it into multiple packets so it moves invisibly across networks and stays secure in storage environments.
As I mentioned earlier, the Stealth technology also anchors Unisys Secure Cloud Solution, which is designed to provide the highest level of data security possible within a cloud environment today, while reducing clients’ upfront investments and ongoing operational costs for cloud computing. Using Stealth technology, the Unisys Secure Cloud Solution allows different clients in a multi-tenant environment to share the same IT infrastructure without the fear of exposing one client’s data to another.
In addition to the Stealth technology, clients of Unisys Secure Cloud Solution benefit from Unisys’ layered security infrastructure, which includes comprehensive capabilities, including intrusion detection and prevention service, security monitoring, advanced correlation and analytics, firewall management and logging.
5. How different are your offerings from other players in the same space?
Unisys cloud computing strategy is uniquely flexible. It draws on all the company’s core capabilities of security, data center transformation, application modernization and outsourcing services to help clients break-through the barriers to adoption and gain a full range of options for cloud services, while safeguarding their operations and lowering IT costs. As I said before, the Unisys cloud computing strategy enables clients to choose the type of data center computing services that best meet their business objectives -- from self-managed, automated IT infrastructure to Unisys-managed cloud services. Using Unisys services and technologies, organizations can create a private cloud within their datacenters, a public cloud through secure Unisys-managed cloud solutions, or a hybrid cloud solution, combining the best of both private and Unisys-managed cloud services.
The Unisys Secure Cloud Solution – a core component of Unisys cloud computing strategy – provides a global platform for delivering a full range of highly secure, managed IT infrastructure and application services available “as a service” through the cloud. This innovative solution enables enterprise clients to securely move conventional business applications – including those with secure or sensitive data, such as human resources, financial, customer and healthcare information – into a managed, shared cloud service without costly, time-consuming rewrites or other alterations. The unique Stealth technology, which delivers an unmatched level of data protection for the cloud environment, is a real differentiator for Unisys cloud computing strategy and solutions.
Also, Unisys portfolio of Cloud Transformation Services rounds out our cloud computing solutions. They provide clients a unique way to understand both how cloud computing can benefit them and what are the strategic and financial implications of adopting specific approaches.
6. What segment is Unisys targeting in India and why?
Unisys believes that our cloud computing strategy and solutions – with their unique emphasis on security – will have special appeal in market sectors such as federal government/public sector, healthcare and financial services, where data security, compliance with regulations for data management, and other security concerns are driving forces in decision-making.
In addition, industries or functions – e.g., financial reporting, benefits administration, and secure document management – that have weekly, monthly or even seasonal spikes in demand for IT resources to support business requirements could benefit from Unisys secure cloud solutions.
Unisys launched its cloud computing strategy and solutions on June 30th. We’re in the process of engaging with clients in a range of industries with our Unisys Cloud Transformation Services – a portfolio of advisory and implementation services that help clients assess potential cloud computing options and determine which option best suits their needs or financial objectives – and our Secure Cloud Solution, a managed, public-cloud service that multiple clients can share.
7. How much do you estimate the market size of cloud computing in India? What is the present growth rate?
Gartner says worldwide cloud services revenues are on a pace to surpass $56.3 billion in 2009, a 21.3 per cent increase in revenues from $46.4 billion in 2008. The market is expected to reach $150.1 billion in 2013. The Indian market, according to Springboard Research, will register a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 76 per cent between 2007 and 2011 and reach $260 million (around Rs 1,300 crore) in revenue by 2011. This presents a great opportunity for Unisys cloud computing solutions.
8. Despite being an old concept, why is this space picking up at the time of recession?
In the current economic scenario, the prospects of de-capitalizing enterprise IT, deferring and avoiding operational costs, fixing the IT bottleneck and more effectively mapping availability of IT resources to fluctuating business demands provide powerful incentives for enterprises to adopt cloud computing.
1. How does cloud computing help address CIO challenges?
The biggest challenges for CIO’s today are managing and securing the exponentially growing information in the IT infrastructure that supports their business and providing centralized access to multiple data centers across the globe. A secure cloud, whether private or public, can enable them to do both more effectively.
Unisys believes that cloud computing will revolutionize the way enterprises obtain business and IT services and change the kind of payback they get from their IT investments. In a severely constrained global economy, the prospect of de-capitalizing enterprise IT, deferring and avoiding operational costs, fixing the IT bottleneck and more effectively mapping availability of IT resources to fluctuating business demands provide powerful incentives to adopt cloud computing.
The major attributes and benefits of cloud computing are the following:
1. Multi-tenant –the capability to process the needs of multiple users with shared resources, dynamically and transparently;
2. Elastic and scalable –resources can be expanded and contracted as needed;
3. Metered/rented – to a certain extent, “pay only for what you use”;
4. Self-provisioned – “self-check-in,” at least to some degree;
5. Internet-based – accessible by using Internet technology, usually over the public Internet;
6. “X” as a service [with “X” being software or infrastructure, for example] – The details/concerns of implementation are abstracted for the customer.
Clients and prospects consistently tell Unisys that concerns about security is the major impediments to adopting cloud computing for business needs. Secure, then, is the additional benefit that differentiates Unisys’ strategy and solutions for cloud computing from other cloud offerings available in the market. The word “secure” refers to providing an overall reduction in risk due to greater security protocols and tools for data in motion (transiting the infrastructure), data at rest (in storage networks) and data in process. Unisys offers those through the Stealth data protection technology in its Secure Cloud Solution.
2. What kind of applications do you expect enterprises to host on the cloud? Why?
Most enterprises have until now been comfortable moving only test and development suites to the cloud, because they don’t involve transmission of sensitive data outside internal firewalls. Unisys Secure Cloud Solution – a managed public cloud service with an unmatched level of data protection based on unique bit-splitting technology called Stealth – enables enterprise clients to securely move conventional business applications into a managed, shared cloud service without costly, time-consuming rewrites or other alterations. Those applications often include secure or sensitive data, such as human resources, financial, customer and healthcare information. The Unisys Secure Cloud Solution can thus help clients reduce capital and operating expenditures and protect their investment in critical business applications.
3. Benefits of cloud computing to the large and small enterprises?
Cloud computing – especially as embodied in Unisys strategy and solutions portfolio – can benefit organizations of all sizes. The Unisys approach enables clients to choose the type of data center computing services that best meet their business objectives, from self-managed, automated IT infrastructures to Unisys-managed cloud services. Using Unisys services and technologies, organizations can create a private cloud within their data centers, a public cloud through secure Unisys-managed cloud solutions, or a hybrid cloud solution combining the best of both private and Unisys-managed cloud services.
Clients and prospects in organizations of all sizes tell Unisys that they see great operational and economic value in moving enterprise applications and data to the cloud. However, they have lacked the comprehensive security to make them confident in doing so.
Unisys cloud computing strategy and solutions focus on helping clients overcome those security concerns. We like to say that security is in Unisys DNA, data center transformation and application modernization are our heritage, and outsourcing services tailored to the client’s specific business needs are our forté. Unisys cloud computing strategy draws on all those core capabilities to help clients break through the barriers to adoption and gain a full range of options for cloud services while safeguarding their operations and lowering IT costs.
4. How secure are Unisys’s cloud computing offerings? What are the special features that Unisys offers on the cloud?
Most of the current cloud computing solutions lack the comprehensive security that gives clients the confidence in moving enterprise applications and data into the cloud.
Unisys’ cloud computing solutions provide the much-required extra layer of security. Underpinning our strategy is Unisys Stealth security solution, an innovative, patent-pending data protection technology, initially designed for government applications and now available to commercial clients too. The Unisys Stealth technology cloaks data through multiple levels of authentication and encryption, bit-splitting it into multiple packets so it moves invisibly across networks and stays secure in storage environments.
As I mentioned earlier, the Stealth technology also anchors Unisys Secure Cloud Solution, which is designed to provide the highest level of data security possible within a cloud environment today, while reducing clients’ upfront investments and ongoing operational costs for cloud computing. Using Stealth technology, the Unisys Secure Cloud Solution allows different clients in a multi-tenant environment to share the same IT infrastructure without the fear of exposing one client’s data to another.
In addition to the Stealth technology, clients of Unisys Secure Cloud Solution benefit from Unisys’ layered security infrastructure, which includes comprehensive capabilities, including intrusion detection and prevention service, security monitoring, advanced correlation and analytics, firewall management and logging.
5. How different are your offerings from other players in the same space?
Unisys cloud computing strategy is uniquely flexible. It draws on all the company’s core capabilities of security, data center transformation, application modernization and outsourcing services to help clients break-through the barriers to adoption and gain a full range of options for cloud services, while safeguarding their operations and lowering IT costs. As I said before, the Unisys cloud computing strategy enables clients to choose the type of data center computing services that best meet their business objectives -- from self-managed, automated IT infrastructure to Unisys-managed cloud services. Using Unisys services and technologies, organizations can create a private cloud within their datacenters, a public cloud through secure Unisys-managed cloud solutions, or a hybrid cloud solution, combining the best of both private and Unisys-managed cloud services.
The Unisys Secure Cloud Solution – a core component of Unisys cloud computing strategy – provides a global platform for delivering a full range of highly secure, managed IT infrastructure and application services available “as a service” through the cloud. This innovative solution enables enterprise clients to securely move conventional business applications – including those with secure or sensitive data, such as human resources, financial, customer and healthcare information – into a managed, shared cloud service without costly, time-consuming rewrites or other alterations. The unique Stealth technology, which delivers an unmatched level of data protection for the cloud environment, is a real differentiator for Unisys cloud computing strategy and solutions.
Also, Unisys portfolio of Cloud Transformation Services rounds out our cloud computing solutions. They provide clients a unique way to understand both how cloud computing can benefit them and what are the strategic and financial implications of adopting specific approaches.
6. What segment is Unisys targeting in India and why?
Unisys believes that our cloud computing strategy and solutions – with their unique emphasis on security – will have special appeal in market sectors such as federal government/public sector, healthcare and financial services, where data security, compliance with regulations for data management, and other security concerns are driving forces in decision-making.
In addition, industries or functions – e.g., financial reporting, benefits administration, and secure document management – that have weekly, monthly or even seasonal spikes in demand for IT resources to support business requirements could benefit from Unisys secure cloud solutions.
Unisys launched its cloud computing strategy and solutions on June 30th. We’re in the process of engaging with clients in a range of industries with our Unisys Cloud Transformation Services – a portfolio of advisory and implementation services that help clients assess potential cloud computing options and determine which option best suits their needs or financial objectives – and our Secure Cloud Solution, a managed, public-cloud service that multiple clients can share.
7. How much do you estimate the market size of cloud computing in India? What is the present growth rate?
Gartner says worldwide cloud services revenues are on a pace to surpass $56.3 billion in 2009, a 21.3 per cent increase in revenues from $46.4 billion in 2008. The market is expected to reach $150.1 billion in 2013. The Indian market, according to Springboard Research, will register a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 76 per cent between 2007 and 2011 and reach $260 million (around Rs 1,300 crore) in revenue by 2011. This presents a great opportunity for Unisys cloud computing solutions.
8. Despite being an old concept, why is this space picking up at the time of recession?
In the current economic scenario, the prospects of de-capitalizing enterprise IT, deferring and avoiding operational costs, fixing the IT bottleneck and more effectively mapping availability of IT resources to fluctuating business demands provide powerful incentives for enterprises to adopt cloud computing.
Go multilingual in 51 languages using Google gadgets
Google on Wednesday released free software that lets website operators automatically translate online pages into any of 51 languages.
A "translator gadget" powered by Google Translate offers to transform pages for visitors if the language settings in their browsers are different from the language of a particular website, according to Google product manager Jeff Chin.
"Automatic translation is convenient and helps people get a quick gist of the page," Chin said in a blog post.
"However, it's not a perfect substitute for the art of professional translation."
In August the Internet giant added automatic translation to Google Docs allowing users to translate documents into 42 languages.
The "Tools" menu on Google Docs now includes a "Translate Document" feature which provides a list of the various languages offered, which run from Albanian to Icelandic to Vietnamese.
The Mountain View, California-based company has already built automatic translation features into its popular email program Gmail and into services such as its blog reader.
Agencies
A "translator gadget" powered by Google Translate offers to transform pages for visitors if the language settings in their browsers are different from the language of a particular website, according to Google product manager Jeff Chin.
"Automatic translation is convenient and helps people get a quick gist of the page," Chin said in a blog post.
"However, it's not a perfect substitute for the art of professional translation."
In August the Internet giant added automatic translation to Google Docs allowing users to translate documents into 42 languages.
The "Tools" menu on Google Docs now includes a "Translate Document" feature which provides a list of the various languages offered, which run from Albanian to Icelandic to Vietnamese.
The Mountain View, California-based company has already built automatic translation features into its popular email program Gmail and into services such as its blog reader.
Agencies
Where is the $23-bn telecom Bharti-MTN merger heading?
The $23-billion deal for the merger of Bharti Airtel and South African giant MTN, which would have been the world's largest in the telecom sector, today fell through.
Sunil Mittal-led Bharti called off discussions with MTN citing the South African government's rejection of the proposed merger structure, which would have created the world's third largest telecom company with combined revenues of over $20 billion annually and a subscriber base of over 200 million.
The issue of dual listing of MTN to maintain its identity in the merged company appears to have been the deal-breaker during the tough negotiations lasting well over four months.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had strongly backed the deal which he took up with South African President Jacob Zuma at the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh last week.
While announcing the calling off of the talks, Bharti in a statement expressed the hope that the South African government "will review its position in the future and allow both companies an opportunity to re-engage".
This is the second time in just over a year when Bharti has been forced to abandon talks for amalgamation of the two organisations in a complex deal that also hinged on Indian government's clearance for dual listing.
"This transaction would have been the single largest FDI into South Africa and one of the largest outbound FDIs from India," Bharti statement said, adding "the structure needed an approval from the government of South Africa, which has expressed its inability to accept it in the current form".
Senior management of Bharti, including Sunil Mittal, could not be reached immediately for comments as they are on a annual off-site, most likely in Pataya, Thailand.
After Bharti had called off negotiations with MTN last year accusing the South African entity of reneging on its commitment and presenting a different structure, Anil Ambani-led RCom had entered into negotiations with MTN for a deal.
This was also called off after Anil's elder brother Mukesh Ambani asserted the first right of refusal and
threatened a legal action. As per the proposed structure, Bharti would have acquired 49 per cent shareholding in MTN and in turn MTN and its shareholders would acquire about 36 per cent economic interest in Bharti.
The South African government had demanded dual listing of MTN in order to protect the character of MTN as a South African entity.
While starting the negotiations for the second time in May this year, Sunil Mittal had said "we see real power in the combination and we will work hard to unleash it for all our shareholders."
India Inc feels let down by deal failure Corporate India today felt let down by the failure of the $23-billion proposed merger deal between telecom giants Bharti Airtel and South Africa's MTN but said the south-south co-operation was still alive.
"In this particular proposed deal they (South African government) could have said they will make an exception in their law in terms of dual listing norms," Ficci secretary general Amit Mitra said.
He, however, said there was still scope in South Africa where Indian companies are preferred by "black administration" which today controls the country.
Assocham President Sajjan Jindal described the development as "the most unfortunate". He said the merger between Bharti and MTN would have provided a "golden opportunity" for India Inc to spread its wings in the global business space.
"It is most unfortunate. The MTN deal has been called off despite full support from the Indian government. It was a golden opportunity for India to globalise its wings," he said.
In a consolatory tone, CII director general Chandrajit Banerjee said the MTN deal not going through should not be seen as a dampener.
"India Inc has had many success in the past and in future too we can hope to see some large merger and acquisitions by Indian companies, including the likes of Bharti," he added.
PHDCCI president Satish Bagrodia, however, said: "Indian industry is quite disappointed with the proposed deal being called off. In future Indian companies will be over cautious."
Agencies
Sunil Mittal-led Bharti called off discussions with MTN citing the South African government's rejection of the proposed merger structure, which would have created the world's third largest telecom company with combined revenues of over $20 billion annually and a subscriber base of over 200 million.
The issue of dual listing of MTN to maintain its identity in the merged company appears to have been the deal-breaker during the tough negotiations lasting well over four months.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had strongly backed the deal which he took up with South African President Jacob Zuma at the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh last week.
While announcing the calling off of the talks, Bharti in a statement expressed the hope that the South African government "will review its position in the future and allow both companies an opportunity to re-engage".
This is the second time in just over a year when Bharti has been forced to abandon talks for amalgamation of the two organisations in a complex deal that also hinged on Indian government's clearance for dual listing.
"This transaction would have been the single largest FDI into South Africa and one of the largest outbound FDIs from India," Bharti statement said, adding "the structure needed an approval from the government of South Africa, which has expressed its inability to accept it in the current form".
Senior management of Bharti, including Sunil Mittal, could not be reached immediately for comments as they are on a annual off-site, most likely in Pataya, Thailand.
After Bharti had called off negotiations with MTN last year accusing the South African entity of reneging on its commitment and presenting a different structure, Anil Ambani-led RCom had entered into negotiations with MTN for a deal.
This was also called off after Anil's elder brother Mukesh Ambani asserted the first right of refusal and
threatened a legal action. As per the proposed structure, Bharti would have acquired 49 per cent shareholding in MTN and in turn MTN and its shareholders would acquire about 36 per cent economic interest in Bharti.
The South African government had demanded dual listing of MTN in order to protect the character of MTN as a South African entity.
While starting the negotiations for the second time in May this year, Sunil Mittal had said "we see real power in the combination and we will work hard to unleash it for all our shareholders."
India Inc feels let down by deal failure Corporate India today felt let down by the failure of the $23-billion proposed merger deal between telecom giants Bharti Airtel and South Africa's MTN but said the south-south co-operation was still alive.
"In this particular proposed deal they (South African government) could have said they will make an exception in their law in terms of dual listing norms," Ficci secretary general Amit Mitra said.
He, however, said there was still scope in South Africa where Indian companies are preferred by "black administration" which today controls the country.
Assocham President Sajjan Jindal described the development as "the most unfortunate". He said the merger between Bharti and MTN would have provided a "golden opportunity" for India Inc to spread its wings in the global business space.
"It is most unfortunate. The MTN deal has been called off despite full support from the Indian government. It was a golden opportunity for India to globalise its wings," he said.
In a consolatory tone, CII director general Chandrajit Banerjee said the MTN deal not going through should not be seen as a dampener.
"India Inc has had many success in the past and in future too we can hope to see some large merger and acquisitions by Indian companies, including the likes of Bharti," he added.
PHDCCI president Satish Bagrodia, however, said: "Indian industry is quite disappointed with the proposed deal being called off. In future Indian companies will be over cautious."
Agencies
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