Square Said to Seek $250 Million Investment

Jin Lee/Bloomberg NewsJack Dorsey, the head of Square and the executive chairman of Twitte

Square, the mobile payments company, is passing the hat again.

Less than one year after raising $100 million, which valued the company at $1.6 billion, the company is going back to its investors. It is now seeking to raise as much as $250 million at a $3 billion to $4 billion valuation, said people briefed on the matter, who requested anonymity because discussions are private and still continuing.

It’s a bold move by Square’s chief, Jack Dorsey, who effectively holds two full-time jobs as the head of Square and the executive chairman of Twitter.

At both start-ups, Mr. Dorsey is trying to manage vast expansions as both are still struggling to build sustainable business models. Twitter has more than 140 million active users, who are sending some 340 million messages a day. Square, an application that allows people and small businesses to pay and collect money through their mobile devices, is processing about $4 billion in transactions a year.

Square, founded less than three years ago by Mr. Dorsey, has not had trouble raising capital thanks to its rapid growth and Mr. Dorsey’s reputation in Silicon Valley as a co-founder of Twitter. It has secured financing from several prominent investors, including Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the venture capital firm that led its last investment round.

Still, the business doesn’t make a lot of money on a per-transaction basis. It scrapes a small fee from every transaction made on Square, which it shares with credit card companies. To become enormously profitable, it will need to increase its merchant base drastically to generate enough transactions. It’s a particularly challenging feat, given the hyper-competitive nature of the mobile payments market.

AllThingsD earlier reported Square’s plans for another investment round.

Nokia Posts $1.2 Billion Loss as Phone Sales Tumble

BERLIN — Nokia, struggling to reinvent its smartphone business around Microsoft’s Windows software, said Thursday that it had lost €929 million in the first quarter as sales plunged 29 percent amid flagging demand for its older Symbian smartphone lineup.

The $1.2 billion loss at Nokia contrasts with a €344 million profit a year earlier. Sales fell to €7.4 billion in the quarter from €10.4 billion a year ago. The Nokia president and chief executive, Stephen Elop, said Nokia would accelerate its cost-cutting efforts amid what he described as a mixed response to its new Lumia smartphones with Microsoft.

“Clearly we are disappointed with our performance in the first quarter,” Mr. Elop said in an interview. “At the same time, the numbers mask the totality of what we have accomplished. Lumia is up and running in the U.S.A. We are clearly in the heart of the transition.”

Shares of Nokia fell 2.2 percent in Helsinki trading to €2.92.

The company, based in Espoo, Finland, had warned investors last week of its first-quarter loss, which it expects to continue into the second quarter. The company’s loss was exacerbated by a €772 million restructuring charge at Nokia Siemens Networks, its money-losing 50-50 network gear joint venture with Germany’s Siemens.

On Monday, Moody’s downgraded Nokia’s long- and short-term debt ratings, citing its deteriorating financial position and questioning its ability to successfully transition to Windows from Symbian. The ratings agency warned that Nokia may have to inject more money into Nokia Siemens, which lost a combined €986 million in 2010 and 2011.

Indeed, the situation appeared to worsen in the first quarter, as the venture’s operating loss grew to €1 billion after a €142 million loss a year earlier. Sales fell 7 percent to €2.9 billion.

Timo Ihamuotila, the Nokia chief financial officer, said Nokia Siemens was making progress to restructure the business and return to profitability.

Mr. Ihamuotila noted that Nokia Siemens Networks had 53 contracts to build new super-fast mobile networks using Long Term Evolution, or LTE, technology, which he said was more than competitors, which include Ericsson of Sweden and Huawei of China.

“They are executing very well into their strategy,” Mr. Ihamuotila said in an interview. “We as a shareholder are looking at NSN to improve operating performance and give us more options.”

Mr. Elop said Nokia was looking at “trajectories, the number of contracts and customer trends,” among other statistical bellwethers, to gauge Nokia Siemens’ future.

To counter the financial downturn, Nokia is pressing ahead with “substantial” additional cost cutting, Mr. Elop said, and is rapidly expanding where the Lumia is available. Sales of the Lumia 610, the least expensive model in the lineup, were set to begin in Asia next week in the Philippines.

In coming weeks, the phone will start selling in China, Singapore, Vietnam, Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia. Mr. Elop, who used to run Microsoft’s business software division before taking over the helm at Nokia, said sales of the Lumia 900 through AT&T Wireless in the United States had so far exceeded the company’s expectations.

Nokia was taking steps, Mr. Elop said, to increase the available stocks of the cellphones, some of which were running out amid strong demand. In Britain, however, Mr. Elop said Nokia was encountering difficulty raising awareness for Lumia, which was being overshadowed by Apple’s iPhone and handsets running Google’s Android operating system.

Mr. Elop said Nokia planned to increase advertising expenditures for Lumia in the second quarter, without giving specifics. To combat the erosion of Nokia’s basic cellphone business, Nokia will incorporate features like proxy browsing, an accelerated Internet browser commonly found on more expensive handsets, into its least expensive models.

Francisco Jeronimo, an analyst at International Data Corp. in London, said Nokia’s weak financial results had been largely expected by investors, who have been heartened to see gains in sales of the Lumia lineup, which the company introduced last year. Nokia sold more than a million Lumia phones during the fourth quarter of last year.

In the first quarter of this year, the number doubled to two million at an average selling price of €220. It took more than a year for Apple to sell more than two million iPhones consistently in a quarter, Mr. Jeronimo said. And it took Google more than a year and a half to do the same with Android, he added.

“So judged by that measure, Nokia is doing well,” Mr. Jeronimo said.

In the short term, however, Nokia continues to suffer.

Sales in Nokia’s core devices and services division, which make up 60 percent of total sales, fell 40 percent in the quarter to €4.24 billion from €7.1 billion. Sales of smartphones fell 52 percent in the period to €1.7 billion from €3.5 billion reflecting weakness in Symbian.

The number of smartphones — both Symbian and Lumia — shipped by Nokia to operators and other sellers fell to 11.9 million from 24.2 million in the quarter.

Sales of basic cellphones, which account for the bulk of Nokia’s handset business, fell also, amid rising competition from low-cost Asian rivals and pressure from Chinese mobile network operators, which are aggressively discounting the prices of basic phones. The average selling price for a basic Nokia phone fell by 18 percent to €33 from €40 a year ago.

“It is clear that Nokia is struggling with its smartphone business but now it looks like it is also struggling with its mobile phone business,” said Malik Saadi, an analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media in London.

Mr. Saadi attributed the difficulty to competition from low-cost Chinese handset makers and the recent move by operators in India and China to start promoting their own branded models, which is pushing prices for Nokia phones lower.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: April 19, 2012

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Nokia’s quarterly loss was $1.2 million, rather than $1.2 billion, because of an editing error.

Talks With Instagram Suggest a $104 Billion Valuation for Facebook

To win over Instagram, Facebook was forced to show its hand.

Facebook bought the photo-sharing service for $1 billion in early April, agreeing to pay roughly 30 percent in cash and 70 percent in stock, according to people briefed on the negotiations who did not want to be identified because the discussions were private. At that level, Facebook is pegging its own stock price at roughly $30 a share. Based on those numbers, the giant social network is valued at north of $75 billion.

But Facebook could actually be worth more. During the negotiations with Instagram, the parties framed the deal around a logical assumption: Facebook could soon trade publicly at a much higher market value. As part of the talks, the companies discussed a potential value of about $104 billion for Facebook, these people said. One of Instagram’s founders, Kevin Systrom, first broached the number, one of the people said.

At $104 billion, the value is roughly in line with where Facebook has at times traded on the secondary market: shares of the privately held company have been selling for as high as $40. While Facebook executives did not promote the higher value, the figure helped the Instagram team assess the deal. When Facebook goes public, Instagram’s chief executive and investors could reap some extra profit on the shares of the social networking company. The reverse is true if Facebook does not fare well in its initial public offering.

Previous Internet deals may give Instagram’s owners some cause for optimism. Amazon.com, for instance, bought Zappos in 2009, giving the shareholders of the shoe retailer 10 million shares, worth $807 million, plus some cash and additional restricted stock. Those 10 million shares are now worth $1.9 billion.

Although deal talks will not dictate Facebook’s eventual price in the market, the acquisition could offer some insight on how the management team may be valuing the social network ahead of its highly anticipated offering.

The company, which is currently in the process of making final changes to its prospectus, is expected to go public next month, these people said. The price of the offering will be determined by several factors, like market demand and the volatility in the equity markets.

Investor demand for I.P.O.’s has been mixed of late. Several Internet companies that went public in recent months are trading below their offering prices. Shares of the daily deals site Groupon, which were sold at $20 late last year, are currently selling for around $12. The online games company Zynga is roughly flat.

“I hope they didn’t agree to this deal because of Facebook’s valuation on the secondary markets,” said Lise Buyer, a former Google executive and the founder of the advisory firm Class V Group. “It’s still unclear if there’s a strong correlation between pricing on the secondary markets and the public market.”

With the Instagram deal, Mark Zuckerberg, 27, is also acknowledging the enormous value he has created in the eight years since starting the company.

Founded by Mr. Zuckerberg and others in his Harvard dormitory in 2004, Facebook has become the world’s largest social network, with more than 845 million users, and some 250 million photographs uploaded each day. While it was not the first social Internet company, it has quickly become the largest. At $104 billion, Facebook is worth more than LinkedIn, Twitter, Groupon and Zynga combined. In 2011, Facebook booked a profit of $1 billion on $3.7 billion in revenue.

The Instagram deal, which was described as an “important milestone” by Mr. Zuckerberg, underscores how important mobile has become to Facebook’s ambitions.

With Instagram’s star rising, Mr. Zuckerberg moved quickly on the deal. On April 5, Instagram closed an investment round that valued it at $500 million with a group of venture capital investors, including Sequoia Capital, Thrive Capital and Greylock Capital.

The next day, Mr. Zuckerberg and Mr. Systrom, who is also Instagram’s chief executive, talked about the outlines of a deal. After a hectic weekend of discussions, the deal was finished on Sunday, and Mr. Zuckerberg unveiled the $1 billion transaction the next day on his Facebook profile page.

“We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all,” Mr. Zuckerberg said, referring to big acquisitions. “But providing the best photo-sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook, and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together.”

Bharti Launched 4G Mobile Services

Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on 10th April launched the country's first ever fourth generation mobile services in Kolkata. This is a major milestone for India and Bharti Airtel as it will result in India becoming one of the first countries in the world to commercially deploy the cutting-edge 4G technology.

Compared to the existing 3G services that allow downloads speed of up to 21 mbps, 4G allows download speed of upto 100 mbps, which is almost 5 times higher than 3G.

"Today's launch is a major milestone for India and Bharti Airtel. Over the past 15 years Bharti Airtel has been at the forefront of India's telecom revolution and has set the technology trends in India by aligning with the global standards. We are delighted to now provide leadership in setting the technology standard for 4G services in India by introducing the cutting edge TD-LTE," Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal said..

"High speed wireless broadband has the potential to transform India, provide a robust platform for building the country's digital economy and truly empower people. With one of the largest pools of young population in the world, India will see massive growth in consumption of data and content over mobile devices and proliferation of mobile commerce. I look forward to Bharti Airtel playing a pivotal role in shaping this exciting future for India," Mittal added.

In telecommunications, 4G is the fourth generation of cell phone mobile communications standards. It is a successor of the third generation (3G) standards. A 4G system provides mobile ultra-broadband Internet access, for example to laptops with USB wireless modems, to smartphones, and to other mobile devices. Conceivable applications include amended mobile web access, IP telephony, gaming services, high definition mobile TV, video conferencing and 3D television.

India Joins Nuke Reactor Design Review Group MDEP

India has joined the Multinational Design Evaluation Programme, MDEP, an initiative to leverage resources and knowledge of nuclear regulators in reviewing new reactor designs. Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, AERB will represent India at the MDEP.

The AERB has become the first new member of the MDEP since its inception in 2006. An MDEP statement said that the Policy Group's decision to induct India is based on careful consideration of information provided by the AERB, concerning its role and duties as well as India's nuclear regulatory framework.

What is MDEP ?

MDEP is a multinational initiative taken by national safety authorities to develop innovative approaches to leverage the resources and knowledge of the national regulatory authorities who are currently or will be tasked with the review of new reactor power plant designs.

Members and participants

Current MDEP members include the regulators from Canada, China, Finland, France,India,Japan, the Republic of Koria, the Russian Federation, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United states. The International Atomic Energy Agency participates in key portions of MDEP activities. The 2010 MDEP Annual report is publicly available and documents the accomplishments to date resulting from the MDEP effort and the focus of future work.

Goals and activities

The MDEP programme incorporates a broad range of activities including:
Enhanced multilateral co-operation within existing regulatory frameworks.
Multinational convergence of codes, standards and Safety goals.
Implementation of MDEP products to facilitate licensing of new reactors, including those being developed by the Generation IV international forum

India To Enter ICBM Club With Agni 5 Test Launch

India will soon enter the elite club of nations having the Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) capability with the Agni-5 getting ready for its first test launch next month.


"The first flight of the ICBM Agni-5 missile is likely to take place next month," DRDO chief V K Saraswat said here today.

DRDO is in the final stages of integration of the missile and its components taking place in a DRDO lab in Hyderabad and the equipment required to study the flight of the missile and its accuracy are being put in place.

Preparations are also in full swing at the test facility in Wheeler island and other labs which will participate in the launch.

Saraswat while talking to reporters earlier this month had said that all the development and industry partners participating in the programme will be present during the first test flight of the missile to witness the test launch.

DRDO plans to conduct more such tests of the ICBM Agni -5 missile over the next one year after studying and analysing the parameters achieved in each subsequent trial.

On the timeline fixed for fully developing the ICBM Agni-5, Saraswat had said that another one year of testing will be involved.

In November last year, DRDO had successfully test fired the 3,500 km range Agni-4 missile giving muscle to India's deterrent capability against the military adversaries.

Kalam Recommends Rs 200 Crore Action Plan For Koodankulam

Former President APJ Abdul Kalam has suggested a 200 crore rupee action plan for development of the area around Koodankulam nuclear project saying that people should not have any doubt over the power plant's safety.

In his study report submitted to the Tamilnadu Government, Kalam, who visited the site ,vouched for the safety of the controversial project. He said, the Koodankulam nuclear project meets all the four safety aspects - nuclear criticality, radiation, thermal hydraulic and structural integrity safety. Therefore, people should not have "even a nano sized doubt" over its safety, he said. He also called for efforts to remove people's fears by providing relevant information. He said with their full co-operation, the plant should start functioning as scheduled to enable Tamil Nadu to get 1000 MW power

Hid report recommends construction of a four- lane highway connecting Koodankulam and villages 30 km around it with Madurai, Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari, a world-class hospital with over 500-beds, mobile medical facilities to locals and creation of 10,000 jobs to people in the radius of 30 to 60 km. Providing bank loans to youth with upto 25 per cent subsidy was another suggestion.

Kalam has also suggested creating infrastructure facilities like construction of green houses, multi-storeyed housing complex, and playgrounds. He said fishermen in the area should be provided with motorboats, small jetties and fish cold storage facilities.

He said efforts should be made to provide locals one million litres of drinking water through desalination process and water should be brought from Pechiparai reservoir in Kanyakumari district for agriculture and drinking water needs.

He said the "Koodankulampura" project plan prepared along with his advisor V.Ponraj should be implemented before by the Centre before 2015.