Friday, June 25, 2004

Euro 2004: Grief descends; England crashes out.

After work I rushed to watch the match with hundreds of football fanatics at one of my favourite pubs here in Lincoln, but sadly, it was a night that we will not remember in happy context.

England, lost to hosts Portugal in the first quarter final of Euro 2004. - They're out.

A sad and undeserved result. After Michael Owen’s third-minute strike, it seemed nothing could go wrong, until the first shot-in-the-arm that came in the 27th minute when Rooney had to leave the playing field. The shoulders did sag. It wasn't a good omen and in the end, it certainly was very clear that having Rooney would probably have meant that we could have seen England play on the 30th too.

Getting Postiga in paid-off in the 83rd minute with Portugal getting their much needed equalizer. Sol Campbell had a last-minute header harshly ruled out by Swiss referee Urs Meier for an apparent foul on Portuguese goalkeeper Ricardo by John Terry.

At the End of normal time scores were: Portugal 1 England 1.

Portugal's second goal came in the second half of Extra-time when Rui Costa's kick cruised passed into James' net.

Lampard's another amazing kick saw England come up with an equalizer but failed to bring up anything after that with Full-time scores at: Portugal 2 England 2

Penalties started pathetically for England with the captain kicking the ball up in the sky and but for Portugal Deco scored and they were level even when Rui Costa missed at 2-2 and it was Vassell who missed and Ricardo finishing it all with 6-5.


Sad, but true, what I do not know is who has a higher degree of emotion today, the Portugese who won or the English who will, now, not be playing on Wednesday.

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

baazee.com to become a part of ebay

baazee.com to become a part of ebay says:

Press Release
eBay to Acquire India's Baazee.com

San Jose, Calif. and Mumbai, India, June 23rd , 2004 - eBay, The World's Online Marketplace (Nasdaq: EBAY; www.ebay.com), today announced that it has agreed to acquire Baazee.com, Inc. and its subsidiary Baazee.com India Pvt. Ltd., the largest online marketplace in India. The acquisition is expected to close in the third calendar quarter of 2004.

The agreement will allow eBay to expand its global footprint into the nascent but growing Indian market. In turn, Baazee.com will use its new relationship with eBay to further develop its business and strengthen its position in India's e-commerce market. The combination of Baazee.com and eBay will allow buyers and sellers in India and around the world to gain access to a broader range of choice and convenience.

Based in Mumbai, Baazee.com offers a diverse online marketplace for a range of buyers and sellers throughout India. Baazee.com currently has more than one million confirmed registered users who trade in a wide range of categories from consumer electronics and computers, to home decor and jewelry.

"Our relationship with Baazee.com is another important step in the growth of eBay's global marketplace," said Meg Whitman, President and CEO of eBay. "Although it's early days for e-commerce in India, we believe there is great opportunity over the long term. Baazee.com's strong management team and solid focus on its community make it a natural fit with eBay."

"Our partnership with eBay validates Baazee.com's business model and position in the industry," said Avnish Bajaj, Chairman and Co-CEO of Baazee.com. "Our local expertise combined with eBay's global perspective will allow us to take e-commerce in India to the next level."

"We built Baazee.com to change the way people buy and sell goods in India," said Suvir Sujan, Co-CEO of Baazee.com. "Becoming part of eBay will allow us to provide even greater economic opportunity for our community of users."

A young market in terms of e-commerce adoption, India's Internet penetration is growing steadily. There are currently 17 million Internet users in India, and that number is expected to grow to more than 30 million in 2006, according to IDC's Internet Commerce Market Model, January 2004.

eBay will acquire all outstanding shares of Baazee.com, Inc. for approximately US$50 million, plus acquisition costs and post-signing adjustments. eBay does not expect the acquisition to have a material impact on 2004 net revenue and earnings per share, and does not expect it to affect eBay's financial guidance as issued in connection with its first quarter earnings release on April 21, 2004.

About Baazee.com
Baazee.com India Pvt. Ltd is a subsidiary of Delaware based Baazee.com, Inc., and started its operations in India in January 2000. Headquartered in Mumbai, Baazee is India's biggest marketplace where anyone can sell or buy almost anything. Baazee has a strong and growing community of 1 million confirmed registered users who trade in a wide range of thousands of item categories including Electronics, Cameras, Phones, Computers, Movies, Mobiles, Fashion, Music, Home, Toys and Travel. Through a world class technology infrastructure Baazee enables & simplifies e-commerce for India's burgeoning online community.

About eBay
eBay is The World's Online Marketplace®. Founded in 1995, eBay created a powerful platform for the sale of goods and services by a passionate community of individuals and businesses. On any given day, there are millions of items across thousands of categories for sale on eBay. eBay enables trade on a local, national and international basis with customized sites in markets around the world. Through an array of services, such as its payment solution provider PayPal, eBay is enabling global e-commerce for an ever growing online community.

Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those discussed. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, the reaction of the users and suppliers of Baazee.com to the transaction, the future growth of Baazee.com's services, the reaction of competitors and regulatory authorities to the transaction, foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, and political, economic, and security developments in, or affecting, India. The closing of the transaction is subject to certain closing conditions. More information about potential factors which could affect eBay's business and financial results is included in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2003, and the company's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. All forward looking statements are based on information available to eBay on the date hereof, and the company assumes no obligation to update such statements.

Fool.com: eBay Bids on India [Motley Fool Take] June 23, 2004

Fool.com: eBay Bids on India [Motley Fool Take] June 23, 2004 says:

eBay Bids on India

By Alyce Lomax
June 23, 2004

eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) is the latest of the large Internet companies to make a move into a country with a vast population and substantial growth potential. Today, the company said it's purchasing Baazee.com, an online auctioneer stationed in India.

This is, of course, a good way for eBay to ensure a foothold in an international market set for growth. Motley Fool Stock Advisor pick eBay will buy Baazee.com -- which currently has 1 million registered users and is considered the largest online marketplace in India -- for $50 million in a transaction during the third quarter that is not expected to have an impact on the former's financial results for the year.

Today's move is a bit of a departure from the recent "China trend" from Internet heavyweights. Just last week, Google said it would acquire a stake in Chinese search site Baidu, while Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) announced the launch of Chinese search portal Yisou.

That's some exciting stuff, especially since China boasted 79.5 million Internet users at the end of 2003 -- second only to the U.S. in terms of people surfing the Internet.

Of course, eBay has already done a bit of a land grab in China by acquiring a Chinese company called EachNet. However, for all the recent excitement about China and the Internet, the fact remains that operating in that country can be rather risky. Take into consideration the warnings in eBay's SEC filings concerning that country's regulations, which breed some degree of uncertainty.

In some ways, then, India may be a less risky environment. (For some background on the country and its economy, click here.) On the other hand, when it comes to being wired to begin with, India has grown slower than China. According to eBay's press announcement, IDC data suggests that 17 million Indians are Internet capable at the moment, a number that is expected to increase to 30 million by 2006.

India, of course, is a hot spot in the current outsourcing debate. Regardless of how you feel about the topic, the flow of jobs to India is creating opportunities for U.S. companies and their services. Today's move gets eBay in on the ground floor of a country with an economy that's developing and arguably well aligned with what eBay provides. This deal also seems a small price to pay to further eBay's pleasant brand of world domination.

eBay is a longtime Motley Fool Stock Advisor stock. What other stocks do the brothers Gardner bet will make big gains? Try it for six months, risk-free. Then, talk to interested Fools about eBay's chances in India on the eBay discussion board.


Alyce Lomax does not own shares of any companies mentioned.

Microsoft's Sacred Cash Cow

Microsoft's Sacred Cash Cow by Jeff Reifman. An interesting read.

PhotoBlogging

Two of the same picture on the same page! Do I look as if I am wasting space in publishing the same file twice and displaying it in different ways?!? Nope! This is when I start PhotoBlogging and the Blog below this is my first photo blog and a reason to shift to blog*spot's servers from my alternateplanet.net web-space for a few weeks (or may be more...)
and... by the way... say Hello and Meet BloggerBot.
 Posted by Hello

WICKED, innit?!!! Posted by Hello

Mika Hakkinen's Steering Wheel

Forward Jokes! - Mika Hakkinen's Steering Wheel

This one's WICKED :)

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

sheru dada

sheru dada: "sabhi bhai log ko mera namaskar aur unki beheno ko mera pyaar. bole to, apun idhar aa gayela hai to sab ko following kaam karne ka:
jyaada aawaj nai karneka aur roj saalam thokneka, bolbachchan nai marneka aur pyaar se rahene ka, ladka hai to raag deneka aur ladki hai to pyaar deneka, aur kabhi bhi hafta deneko nai bhoolneka. okay, to tension nai leneka aur chup chap so jaaneka.
abhi to jaarela hoon, lekin waapis jaroor aaoonga. chal e bye bye, bole to gud ki night"


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a direct lift from Shreyas Thaker's blog on the URL above using BlogThis! on the google toolbar.

Monday, June 21, 2004

SAP to launch a New SAP Service Marketplace and SAP Support Portal

SAP is coming up with a new SAP Service Marketplace release to go-live on June 27, 2004 with a new, harmonized layout and navigation structure, providing SAP customers, partners, and prospects with a central point of access to SAP's entire portfolio via the Internet.


It says, The new release/look is necessitated by the recent growth in size and complexity of the SAP Service Marketplace and the current trend towards portals catering to the needs of specific target groups has made it increasingly difficult for users to find what they are looking for quickly and easily. The SAP Service Marketplace team has therefore devised a new concept for the SAP Service Marketplace to align it more closely with the needs and requirements of its many different users.


The New Layout will have areas like:
Solution Details,
Education,
Consulting, etc

The entire content of the SAP Service Marketplace is now divided into individual portals - including
SAP Support Portal,
SAP Developer Network,
SAP Partner Portal,
SMB Portal,
SAP Help Portal,
SAP Community
- and an area containing the categories
Solutions in Detail,
Consulting,
Education,
Communities for user groups, and
SAP's Media Library.


i.e: A single-new SAP Service Marketplace index page will act as a gateway to all these portals rather than the user having to type the URL's individually.

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All the above facts are,as reported by SAP the current SAP Service Marketplace and may be © Copyright SAP AG.