Nasdaq-listed Indian Internet and IT firm Sify Technologies appears to have finally settled out of court the business tort suit (case no: 1-06-CV-076671) which it filed against Yahoo in the Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara on 18th of December 2006. Read a 2006 news report of the case details on ContentSutra.
Sify’s legal win or settlement has contributed $12 million to its other income but when contacted the spokesperson declined to confirm it saying, “With regard to your query regarding other income, under the terms of a confidentiality agreement, we cannot provide further comment on this matter.”
Details: Conference Call recording | Financials
With this $12 million, the company has registered a net profit in the December 2009 quarter of $9.46 million. It had posted a net loss of $2.36 million in the previous quarter and $4.33 million in the December 2008 quarter.
Revving Up Consumer Biz This Year, Unified Approach Planned
Until now, we had not understood why Sify was holding onto its decaying consumer business – cyber cafes (ePorts), home broadband and Sify.com – but the company has now announced that it will step up investments in its consumer business and is in the final stages of preparation for a unified strategy for consumer services with test launches scheduled for the near future. The unified approach will see value added services being offered across cyber cafes, home broadband customers and Sify.com users.
Applications have been identified across utility bill payments, learning and education, ticketing, shopping, e-governance, which will be made available on Sify’s proprietary platform, said CVS Suri, COO, Sify.
In the December quarter, the consumer business declined again by 38 percent reduction year on year to stand at Rs. 4.14 million, down 15.5 percent from the previous quarter. Revenues from consumer business were lower, the company explained, due to pending new businesses that were to be launched. It also has a new product line for broadband. “Now, growth in consumer business is going to become a key focus for the company,” said Raju Vegesna, MD & CEO of Sify during the earnings concall with investors.
It believes its new strategy will push growth and help drive additional revenues from consumers at home, portal Sify.com and at cybercafes.
E-Ports/ Cybercafes
The number of active ePort users has reduced considerably year on year by 63 percent to 221,000, marking a 27.8 percent drop quarter on quarter. The number of ePorts operational in the December quarter fell to 1384 and only 17 new ePorts were added.
Sify is looking to expand reach of e-ports and testing a new strategy to increase revenues. CDAC and the Indian Institute of Banking & Finance used ePorts for online job applications in the quarter. Sify’s partner National Internet Exchange of India offered an Internet learning program aimed at building awareness of the WWW.
Access & Consumer Services
Sify added 2 products for broadband aimed at reducing churn – 2 Mega Blast offers with free usage for certain periods on advance payment; and the Platinum range for small offices. Yet its subscriber base fell 33.15 percent year on year to 121,000 users and average revenue per user by 11.55 percent from the previous quarter to Rs. 268.
New Customers
Sify acquired 225 new customers in the quarter with network services accounting for 107 customers, hosting services added 21 new customers, application services 48, and public key infrastructure gaining 43 customers in the quarter. In e-learning, Sify acquired 4 new customers.
It acquired 43 customers for its application services and clients including the Government of Maharashtra, document management for telco BSNL in Karnataka, supply chain management for Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd and National Institute of Management for online assessment services and a learning management system. It has been awarded a systems integration project to build and manage the State Data Centre of Tripura.
It also added 3 new accounts for infrastructure managed services in areas of insurance, healthcare and advertising and added Kapto as a client.
Performance In The December Quarter, Launches
Hosting services grew by 20% in the quarter. It has planned new initiatives for hosting in future high capacity managed storage services in high availability mode, cloud computing and other managed services.
International services revenues remained flat but the company claims it has a healthy sales funnel.
SimpliDoc was launched, aimed at the SMB segment.
Its channel business saw a 24 percent growth.
Its international VoIP business grew 7% over the despite the free fall in prices for international termination. 12 new carriers signed on with Sify: Balmo International, BCN, Beox, Clanlink Limited, Cyber Telecom, Dialezy Com, France Telecom, Globalcom, IXc Global Inc, Rudra Global, Voice Tec and Voipshop Tele.
Launched operations in Singapore to target partners and vendors there for its enterprise business.
Online ad revenues rose 18% in the quarter.
On the mobile front -Sify Call, Sify Weather, Sify News and Sify Astrology were made available on the mobile.
Launched Samachar Buzz – a social book marking feature for Samachar.com users.
Sify also offered a game ‘Predict the Sensex‘ for its finance users.
Related
– Sep09: Sify’s Consumer Business Slides; Expects Price, Margin Decline
– Sify Hives Off E-Learning, Software Business; FY09 Portals, Access Business Details
