Amazon to layoff 10,000 staff – report; Adani a step closer to acquiring NDTV; LTI, Mindtree merger approved

Amazon plans to lay off approximately 10,000 people in corporate and technology jobs starting as early as this week, in what would be the largest job cut in the company’s history, New York Times reports, citing people who know about the plan. Billionaire Gautam Adani’s conglomerate has received the go-ahead for an open offer for broadcaster NDTV’s shares. And LTI and Mindtree became LTIMindtree, India’s fifth biggest IT company by market cap, yesterday. Notes: Amazon plans to lay off approximately 10,000 people in corporate and technology jobs starting as early as this week, in what would be the largest job cut in the company’s history, New York Times reports, citing people who know about the plan. Separately, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos plans to give away the bulk of his wealth, currently at $124 billion, during his lifetime, he told CNN in an exclusive interview. Bezos will devote much of his wealth to fighting climate change and supporting people who can unify humanity in the face of deep social and political divisions, he said. Bezos and his partner Lauren Sánchez also announced a $100 million grant to American country music singer Dolly Parton as part of her Courage and Civility Award. In more billionaire news, India’s Gautam Adani’s conglomerate Adani group received regulatory approval to float an open offer for a further 26 percent stake in New Delhi Television, or NDTV, Bloomberg reports. This is a crucial milestone in a takeover battle between Adani, Asia’s richest person, and NDTV’s founders Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy, according to the report. Adani group triggered a hostile takeover bid for NDTV after it acquired an indirect 29.18 percent stake in August. Samsung is planning to reduce its smartphone shipments by 13 per cent next year IANS reports, citing news from Gizmochina. The Korean tech giant was not able to sell as many smartphone units as it had expected because of multiple reasons, including supply-chain disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Although Samsung was able to raise its market share in terms of shipments during the third quarter of this year compared with the second quarter, the company had an overall decline of about 8 per cent year over year, according to Gizmochina, IANS reports. L&T group’s IT services companies Larsen & Toubro Infotech and Mindtree will now operate as one company, LTIMindtree, effective Nov. 14, after receiving regulatory approvals, the company said in a press release yesterday. The Mumbai and Bengaluru benches of the National Company Law Tribunal have approved the merger, according to the press release. LTIMindtree has a client portfolio of more than 750 leading global enterprises from all the important industry verticals, and nearly 90,000 employees, operating in more than 30 countries, although the bulk of the IT services outsourcing provider’s workforce is in India. The company will become the fifth-largest IT services company in India in terms of current market capitalization. As part of the merger, all shareholders of Mindtree will be issued shares of LTI in the ratio of 73 shares of LTI for every 100 shares of Mindtree. The parent company, L&T, will hold 68.73 percent of the merged entity. Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds: https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds