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Indian tennis ace Leander Paes and Zimbabwe’s Cara Black won the mixed doubles crown at the season-ending Grand Slam on Thursday. The fifth seeded Indo-Zimbabwean pair beat the American-British pairing of Liezel Huber and Jamie Murray 7-6, 6-4 in the final.

The triumph increased Paes’s  tally of Grand Slam crowns to eight. In 1999, Paes had partnered Mahesh Bhupathi and Lisa Raymond to win the men’s doubles and mixed doubles crowns at Wimbledon.

American brothers Bob and Mike Bryan won their seventh Grand Slam men’s doubles crown Friday, defeating India’s Leander Paes and Czech Lukas Dlouhy 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (12/10) to take the US Open title. The Bryans, who ran through the tournament without losing a set, previously won Slam crowns at Roland Garros in 2003, the US Open in 2005, Wimbledon in 2006 and the Australian Open in 2006 and 2007.

The defeat denied Paes a chance at a US Open doubles double, having already claimed the mixed crown with Zimbabwe’s Cara Black. Paes had claimed such doubles in 1999 at Wimbledon and the French Open, partnered with American Lisa Raymond in mixed and compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi in the men’s doubles.

The victory enables the Bryans to move back into the world number one ranking from second.

News and pictures courtesy: AFP, Daijiworld

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Infosys Technologies said on Monday it had agreed to buy British consultancy Axon Group Plc for £407m (US$753m) as India’s second-biggest software services exporter looks for growth beyond an uncertain U.S. market.

The cash deal values Axon at £6 per share, a 19.4 per cent premium over Friday’s close of £5.025 and 33 per cent over the average price of the last six months, Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan said.

The offer price included any interim dividend that Axon, which has a market value of almost US$600m, may announce when it releases results on Tuesday, Infosys said. The Axon board has already ”unanimously recommended” the offer, with its large shareholders and some key employees also supporting the deal, Infosys CFO V. Balakrishnan said.

”They wanted to enter Europe in a big way, and probably this is the reason why they have paid a higher premium,” said R. K. Gupta, managing director of Taurus Mutual Fund in New Delhi.

”It’s a positive sign for the company because they were sitting on a huge cash pile, and it was not generating any return.”

Subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals, Nasdaq-listed Infosys expects to complete the deal in November. Axon, which provides services to companies using products of German business software maker SAP, would be delisted, Infosys said.

Rest of the news here.

Above picture of Infosys Mysore courtesy: Karthik

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Hyderabadi beer guzzlers have a reason to smile. Now they need not experience beer shortages anymore because the Nizam city is fast becoming the hub of MNC breweries. Hyderabad is indeed becoming the emerging beer capital of India. Hyderabad is famous for its Biryani, and the city is now brewing lots of beer to gulp. Foreign breweries are rushing to Hyderabad to claim a pint of the most lucrative beer market in the country.

In the last two years, four brewing giants like South African-based Sab-Miller, US-based Anheuser-Busch, UK-based Cobra and recently Singapore-based Asia-Pacific Breweries have set up shop in Hyderabad. CNBC TV18 learns that Belgian-based InBev and Danish-Carlsberg may also well be on their way .

Full article here

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So, who’se going to be crowned the Champion of Europe? Aah, how i wish i could wake up at 2:30 in the morning to watch the match. Have been so tired these past few days watching IPL that i dont think i will be able to wake up in the middle of the night to watch the match.

Many colleagues have applied for leave tomorrow and the rest are sure to apply for urgent leaves or medical leave tomorrow. A direct consequence of staying up watching the Champions league finals. Last year i had slept at 8 in the evening and woke up at 2:30 in the morning to watch the Milan-Liverpool finals. It was worth the effort as Liverpool was whacked by Milan. How i wish i can do that again tonite.

Anyway, lets see. Meanwhile, may Chelsea win

Above picture from: Soccernet

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• February 2000 – Tata Tea Ltd acquires UK’s Tetley for $432 million, becoming the world’s No. 2 packaged tea company.

• August 2004 – Tata Motors signs a deal to buy the commercial vehicle unit of South Korea’s Daewoo Group for $102 million.

• June 2005 – Tata Steel Ltd buys Singapore’s lone steel miller, NatSteel Ltd, for $286 million.

• July 2005 – Tata Coffee buys US-based Eight O’Clock Coffee Co for $220 million from Gryphon Investors.

• August 2006 – Telecom firm Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd buys US-based Teleglobe International Holdings Ltd for $239 million and completes the $130 million purchase of Tyco International’s global undersea fibre optic cable network unit.

• January 2007 – Tata Tea buys 30 per cent of US enhanced water firm Energy Brands Inc for $677 million. It sells the stake less than a year later to Coca-Cola for $1.2 billion.

• March 2007 – Tata Steel acquires Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus Group for $13 billion, India’s biggest overseas takeover yet.

• January 2008 – Tata Power buys stakes in Indonesian PT Bumi Resources Tbk’s two coal mines for $1.3 billion.

• February 2008 – Tata Chemicals buys US soda-ash producer General Chemical Industrial Products Inc for $1.01 billion.

Above information courtesy: Economic Times

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