Hey Folks!
Starting a brand new extension to the regular weekend updates with curated picks — reading, news updates, webinar schedule, swing ideas, book and music.
This is purely going to be the distillation of key events on the week that went by.
More de-cluttering.
Salesforce Slack Deal
Finally, the inevitable happened.
Some background?
Well, Slack was kicking ass in acquiring users, growing and really enabling community-driven work when Covid hit. Growth skyrocketed and there was no looking back until something else happened.
Microsoft Teams took off - on a massive scale.
How?
End to end integration. OS - Outlook - App
And Teams overtook Slack in terms of popularity, usage and active users.
So why did Salesforce start taking interest in Slack?
Well, Microsoft also has a CRM tool called Microsoft Dynamics. Their Teams integration would have helped them in upping the game against Salesforce who are the leaders in the CRM space.
Enter, Slack acquisition for USD 28 bn.
Makes sense?
Let’s see how this space evolves.
Honey Brands in India
Recently, a lot of leading honey brands failed the authenticity test!
What?
Basically, it was found out that the honey was adulterated and it had sugar syrup/substitutes.
How did we get here? - Read more about it here.
So who passed the test?
Marico’s newly launched Saffola Honey.
FII Inflows
Since the stock market has been flying on a daily basis. The question that is on top of everyone’s head at an all-time peak now is this -
Aur batao, markets kya lagta hai?
Let’s look at some data at FII Inflows.
Data taken from StockEdge
If you can read between the lines, November was at 65,238+ cr. - in global context, that’s roughly USD 7.5 bn
Let’s look at some annual flows number, shall we?
Which begs the question - Have we reached the top?
Is this time different?
A bull case confirmation bias states this - We are not even half of the flows compared to 2012-14 levels. And the world is flush with massive liquidity - will all of them ignore India as the preferred EM asset of choice? - probably not
Bear case - Too much run - up has taken place, can see cool off coming in.
Which camp do you belong to?
Wall Street starts trading in Water
Almost a year back, there were reports that Cape Town was running out of water.
A few months back, it was California.
Is water becoming dearer?
What does this smell of in the world of capitalism?
Opportunity.
This week Wall Street started trading California water futures. Read more about it here.
TATAs are back?
When were they even gone in the first place?
Tata Chemicals is setting up Lithium - Ion Battery Plants. They have apparently applied for the GOI’s newly announced PLI incentives too.
Tata Motors is selling EVs that will use these batteries.
Tata Power will be setting up charging station in your parking garage.
Tata Consumer Products is consolidating the agri-comodity space with pulses.
They are also readying a war chest of USD 1.2 bn to scoop up Big Basket, 1 mg and consolidate their e-commerce presence.
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