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Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (6175)	9/1/1999 4:51:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12475

Bhatia, Chandrashekhar, UTV to take 30% in U.S Co Homeland Networks UTV India: utvnet.com Chandrashekar's Exodus: exodus.net Gurbir Singh (ET Online) MUMBAI 1 SEPTEMBER SILICON Valley success stories Sabeer Bhatia and KB Chandrashekhar, along with the Indian television software provider and broadcaster UTV, are taking a stake of around 30 per cent in Internet company Homeland Networks Corporation of the US. While Mr Bhatia and Mr Chandrashekhar will each hold five per cent of the equity, UTV will be taking around 20 per cent. However, for the Hotmail whizkid Sabeer Bhatia, Homeland is not just a portfolio investment, but a new hands-on job to shape the company, which he enters as a director on its board. The deal involves UTV leveraging its software library into equity for which the valuation is in progress at the company's headquarters at Paulo Alto in the US. "The valuation will determine UTV's holding, but part of our equity will be through cash funds," Ronnie Screwvala, chairman, UTV, told The Economic Times. The company's 'angel round' start-up equity base will be around $6m, with ramp-ups every six months, he added. Homeland, initially promoted by Ron Victor, targets customised Internet programming and e-commerce activities to ethnic populations worldwide. The company is also looking at a Nasdaq listing in about 18 months. The web-based media corporation shot into fame recently by carving for its Cricket World Cup site www.worldcupscore.com a large and loyal viewership base worldwide. Mr Victor and his associates will hold a controlling share of 35-40 per cent in Homeland. Homeland has set its sights primarily on the Chinese, Latino and Indian migrant populations, estimated at 30 million, 28 million and 15 million, respectively, and considered to be the largest in the world. Homeland will provide a variety of sites catering to e-commerce, video programmes and up to 15 radio channels for starters. The Indian language sites will be the first to start. While the sites will be designed in Paulo Alto, the Asian and Indian content will be developed by UTV in India. Apart from Hindi and Tamil programming, UTV has a large library of audio and video Mandarin and Malay language programmes. "The Homeland tie-up is a unique opportunity to leverage our competence in conventional media into assets in new media," Mr Screwvala remarked. Sabeer Bhatia has pioneered the world?s largest free e-mail service, Hotmail, later bought by Microsoft, while KB Chandrashekhar is associated with the well-known Silicon Valley-based Internet company Exodus. ================== Source:Business Standard Homeland is targeting customised Internet programming and e-commerce activities for ethnic Indians, Chinese and Latino populations globally. "There are about 30 million Chinese, 30 million Latin and 10 million Indian immigrants worldwide. We will be providing this content through the site. The Indian content will be launched in October, while Chinese and Latin will go on air early next year," Screwvala added. Homeland launched worldcupscore.com during the recent cricket World Cup. Most of the content for the site is expected to originate from India through UTV.......

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (6175)	9/1/1999 8:14:00 PM
From: Satish C. Shah	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12475

An interesting history of Indian Immigration in the USA, in "Oh, Issac, Oh, Bernard, Oh, Mohan", by Bharati Mukherjee, in "Consuming Desires", edited by Roger Rosenblatt. Published 1999, by Island Press. Some excerpts... "In 1920, the California Alien Land Law and a series of US Supreme Court rulings deprived them of the right to own land" (page 79) "The physical intimidation and the legislated restrictions worked. By 1940, there were fewer than 2,500 South Asians in the United States,.." (page 80) "Robert Kennedy changed the culture, structure, and the size of South Asian immigrant population........" (page 80) "In the 1960s, Americans tended to credit all Indians with having automatic access to wisdom and serenity." (page 81) Regards, Satish