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L&T, Tech Mahindra, Spice eye Satyam; Hindujas pull out

NEW DELHI: Three leading corporate

houses — L&T, BK Modi-promoted Spice Corp and Tech Mahindra— have submitted their expressions of interest to acquire majority stake in the scam-hit Satyam Computer.

The government-appointed board of the beleaguered IT company is meeting in Hyderabad on Friday to scrutinize the EoIs. Business conglomerate Hinduja group has pulled out of the competition.

Satyam closed registrations for potential bidders on Thursday as it began a process to sell 51 per cent stake in the company which is caught in the country's biggest corporate scandal.

The EoIs from prospective bidders, however, failed to lift the sentiments at the Satyam counter on bourses. The scrip on BSE closed the day down 3.18 per cent at Rs 47.20.

Engineering giant L&T, the single largest shareholder in Satyam at 12 per cent, said it has registered in the bidding process. Company spokesperson D Morada said that "L&T has put in the EoI today".

Spice Corporation chairman B K Modi said the company has registered online. Earlier the day, Tech Mahindra said it has submitted the EoI and once the company receives the RFP (request for proposal) it will evaluate and conclude on next step.

The deadline to submit the bid and proof of adequate funds is March 20.

The Hinduja group, which was also in the reckoning till recently, pulled out at the last moment as the company did not submit the EoI. Sources attributed non-participation to the legal implications.

Multinational IT giants HP and CSC are also understood to have submitted their interests but no confirmation could be ascertained. When contacted spokespersons of both the companies said they would not like to comment.

Global infotech major IBM, which has long been seen as a potential acquirer of Satyam, also did not confirm the move.

Domestic IT majors TCS and HCL Technologies
also declined to comment. Infosys Technologies said it did not register in the process, while Wipro said it does not comment on rumours.

Recently, Wipro chief Azim Premji had said that the company would not look at Satyam for acquisition.

After studying the EoIs, eligible bidders will be short listed and be given access to certain business, financial and legal diligence materials of Satyam provided they execute a non-disclosure and a non-solicitation agreement, a stand- still agreement and a no-claim undertaking.

After completion of the due diligence process and execution of the pre-financial bid documents, all short-listed bidders will be asked to submit their financial bids and an executed copy of the share subscription agreement along with a proof of availability of funds for Rs 1,500 crore by March 20.

Satyam Computers has been in turmoil since its founder B Ramalinga Raju confessed on January 7 that he overstated the company's profits over several years and created a fictitious cash balances of more than Rs 7,000 crore.

Source from: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Business/LT-Tech-Mahindra-Spice-eye-Satyam/articleshow/4256343.cms

World population will be 7 bn in 2012

New York, Mar 12: The world’s population will hit 7 billion early in 2012 and cross 9 billion in 2050, with the majority of the increase taking place in developing countries, revised United Nations estimates show.

India
, United States, China, Bangladesh and Pakistan are among nine countries which are projected to account for half of the world’s population increase from 2010 to 2050. The others are Nigeria, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Tanzania.

"There have been no big changes for the recent estimates and we have not changed the assumptions for the future," Hania Zlotnik, Director of the Population Division at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, told reporters yesterday.

"We’re still projecting that by 2050 the population of the world will be around 9.1 billion," she said, as she presented the 2008 Revision of the World Population Prospects.

Zlotnik noted that current projections are based on the assumption that fertility is going to decline from the current global level of 2.5 children per woman to 2.1 children per woman from now until 2050.

The population of the 49 least developed countries (LDCs) is still the fastest growing in the world, at 2.3 per cent per year, the Population Division said.

Source From: http://www.zeenews.com/sci-tech/miscellaneous/2009-03-12/514213news.html

Madoff pleads guilty to fraud, sent to jail

NEW YORK: Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty on Thursday to an epic fraud that robbed investors
worldwide of billions of dollars, avoiding eye contact
with swindled investors before he was led out of court with his hands cuffed behind his back.

US district judge Denny Chin denied bail for Madoff, 70, and ordered him to jail, noting that he had the means to flee and an incentive to do so because of his age.

Madoff spoke steadily in court as he addressed the judge before his guilty plea was accepted.

"I am actually grateful for this opportunity to publicly comment about my crimes, for which I am deeply sorry and ashamed," he said.

"As the years went by, I realized my risk, and this day would inevitably come. I cannot adequately express how sorry I am for my crimes."

Madoff did not look at any of the three investors who spoke at the hearing, even when one of them turned in his direction and tried to address him.

After arguments began as to whether Madoff should remain free on bail, his lawyer Ira Sorkin described the bail conditions and how Madoff had, "at his wife's own expense," paid for private security at his $7 million penthouse.

Loud laughter erupted among some of the more than 100 spectators crammed into the large courtroom on the 24th floor of the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan. The judge warned the spectators to remain silent.

The fraud turned a revered money man into an overnight global disgrace whose name became synonymous with the current economic meltdown.

Madoff described his crimes after he entered a guilty plea to all 11 counts he was charged with, including fraud, perjury, theft from an employee benefit plan, and two counts of international money laundering.

Prosecutors say the disgraced financier, who has spent three months under house arrest in his $7 million in Manhattan penthouse, could face a maximum sentence of 150 years in prison at sentencing.

Madoff explained his scheme by telling the judge that he believed the fraud would be short-term and that he could extricate himself.

The plea came three months after the FBI claimed Madoff admitted to his sons that his once-revered investment fund was all a big lie — a Ponzi scheme that was in the billions of dollars. Since his arrest in December, the scandal has turned the 70-year-old former Nasdaq chairman into a pariah who has worn a bulletproof vest to court.

The scheme evaporated life fortunes, wiped out charities and apparently pushed at least two investors to commit suicide. Victims big and small were swindled by Madoff, from elderly Florida retirees to actors Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel.


Source From: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Madoff-pleads-guilty-to-fraud-sent-to-jail/articleshow/4257102.cms