The steel business is looking grimmer. Angad Paul, owner of Caparo Plc, jumped to his death last year as his company was on the brink of collapse. Now, almost a decade after its expensive acquisition of European steel-maker Corus, the Tata Group is putting Corus’s UK business on the block. The UK business has been doing rather badly for several months and the decision was pushed by a resolve to stem heavy losses. Though the Tatas are selling only the UK business at the moment, their European functions have not been doing great either. This may force the Tatas to take a call on that business as well.
Is it getting too hot in the disruption business? First, Uber took rival taxi firm Ola to court over alleged foul play. But, as observers asked, weren’t there reports in the US about Uber’s similar games with rivals like Lyft? Then there was Flipkart’s Sachin Bansal taking a jibe at Snapdeal and Paytm over Alibaba’s supposed decision to directly enter India’s e-commerce space. These hostilities aren’t anything new, though start-ups in Silicon Valley are known to go after each other more aggressively than here. Earlier this month, a top Alibaba Group executive said in Delhi that the Chinese firm was eyeing an e-commerce entry in India this year. What’s cooking?
