Facebook acquires India's Little Eye Labs

New Delhi: Social networking giant Facebook today acquired Bangalore-based Little Eye Labs, its first take over in the country, for an undisclosed amount. The start up firm builds performance analysis and monitoring tools for mobile app developers.

"Today, we are very excited to announce that Facebook is acquiring our company. With this acquisition, Little Eye Labs will join forces with Facebook to take its mobile development to the next level," Little Eye Labs said on its website.

This is Facebook's first acquisition of an Indian company and Little Eye is happy to become part of such an incredible team, it added.

Though the deal size has not been announced, reports suggest it could be in the range of USD 10-15 million.

"I'm excited to announce that we're acquiring Little Eye Labs, a company that produces world-class technology to help developers build more efficient products with Android.

This is an opportunity to welcome some of the industry's most talented engineers to our team in Menlo Park, California," Facebook Engineering Manager Subbu Subramanian said.

At Facebook, the focus continues to be on producing useful and engaging mobile apps, he added. "Little Eye Labs technology will help us continue to improve Facebook's Android codebase to make more efficient, higher-performing apps," he said.

Founded about a year ago by four Bangalore-based technology professionals -- Giridhar Murthy, Kumar Rangarajan, Satyam Kandula and Lakshman Kakkirala, Little Eye is backed by GSF and VenturEast Tenet Fund.

"The entire Little Eye Labs team will move to Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, California. From there, we'll be able to leverage Facebook's infrastructure and help improve performance of their apps," the note said.

It added that current customers of the firm will receive further information on its plans to offer a free version of Little Eye until June 30, 2014.

Some other acquisitions that Facebook has made to strengthen its mobile products include Parse, a mobile- backend-as-a-service startup (April 2013).

Facebook also recently made an attempt to buy instant messaging firm Snapchat, which reportedly turned down its USD 3 billion offer.

Jaguar launches new XF sedan

New Delhi: Tata-owned Jaguar Land Rover on Monday launched a petrol variant of its Jaguar XF sedan in India, priced at Rs 48.3 lakh (ex-showroom Mumbai).

Broadening its product line-up, the company is offering a two-litre petrol variant of the Jaguar XF for the first time in India, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) said in a statement.

"The Jaguar XF 2.0L petrol engine is a definite head turner and an excellent sedan that combines elegant design, luxurious style and classy appeal," JLR India Vice President Rohit Suri said.

The new XF model comes with features such as rear-view camera, sun roof and navigation. The entire Jaguar India model range is available at 19 outlets across 17 cities in the country.

Reebok India ropes in John Abraham as brand ambassador

New Delhi: Sportswear company Reebok India on Monday said it has roped in Bollywood actor John Abraham as its brand ambassador in a long term deal.
The company, which is repositioning Reebok as a fitness brand, however, did not disclose the value of the contract.

"We are trying to reposition Reebok as a fitness brand and John Abraham perfectly fits into the profile. He will be promoting the training and running categories," Reebok India Brand Director Somdeb Basu told PTI.

With the association, the company is looking to strengthen the training and running categories, which are its two biggest segments, and inspire Indian consumers to take up fitness as a lifestyle, he added.

Commenting on the development, Adidas Group India Managing Director Erick Haskell said: "Reebok has solid plans in the fitness sphere and we want to give our consumers a never before fitness experience at every touch point."

Reebok, a part of the Adidas Group, will launch a festival season campaign featuring Abraham for its running and training gear.

"John Abraham is the perfect embodiment of our fitness philosophy, we are very excited to partner with him and together take our commitment to fitness to the next level," Haskell said.

In June, Adidas had said it has putting behind the 211 million euro hit due to alleged fraud at its arm Reebok India and the company would focus on growing the brand with plans to open 100 'fit-hub' stores by early 2014.

Last year in May, Adidas had alleged Rs 870 crore fraud at Reebok India by the company's former managing director Shubhinder Singh Prem and former chief operating officer Vishnu Bhagat. The matter is currently under investigation.

Google Glass goes to the dogs

Washington: Search engine giant Google is reportedly planning to develop its wearable computing device Google Glass for dogs with occupation.

According to New York Post, Google has teamed up with Georgia Institute of Technology, in order to develop a wearable computer system that could give bomb-sniffing and cadaver dogs an easier way to communicate with their handlers, or even let man see the world through an animal's eyes.

The project called FIDO (Facilitating Interactions for Dogs with Occupations) could allow pooches to bite down on or otherwise activate a sensor which can send information to its handler.

Google Glass is expected to be released to the mass market next year and its technical lead Thad Starner, has joined professors at the Georgia Institute to develop a computerized harness to assist working dogs.

Associate Professor Melody Jackson said that the dogs being tested for devices which could activate sensors have been found to have quickly got the hang of the sensors, which they activated using their mouths.

Jackson added that the gear is being eyed for everything from the deadly-serious business of bomb detecting or helping the blind to letting owners know when a dog has to go out or when it's time to be fed, the report added.

Most Highly-Paid CEOs at U.S. Public companies in 2013

Really cool graph. I really like the fact that it is not just showing the aggregate, it is also showing the breakdown of the pay. (Though it would have been a lot more clearer not to just use shades of gray.)
For example, you can see that for Mr. Ellison it is mostly options, for Mr. Kotick it is mostly stock.

You can also pick out things like what seem to be the humongous cost of "Perks" for Mr. Bracken. What is he getting?

The other thing you'll notice is the total lack of any connection between the change in salary (Change column, fourth from the right) and the company's actual performance (last column on the right).

It is not just on the top ten or so. Checkout the bottom of the list, the CEOs of General Motors, Merck, Sprint, Cardinal Health, Aflac. See their salary performance vs. company performance.