Prosus terminates $4.7 bln BillDesk deal; Google names 20 women founders to India accelerator; Svante Pääbo wins Nobel for medicine

Prosus, the Dutch-listed global consumer and technology investor, has terminated its agreement to buy India’s BillDesk, ending a deal worth $4.7 billion. Google yesterday announced a list of 20 startups with women founders or co-founders for the first batch of an accelerator programme in India, specifically aimed at encouraging women entrepreneurs. And Svante Pääbo, a Swedish geneticist is this year’s winner of the Nobel Prize for medicine. Notes: Prosus, the Dutch-listed global consumer and technology investor, has terminated its agreement to buy India’s BillDesk, ending a deal worth $4.7 billion. Prosus, controlled by South African media and consumer internet company Naspers, had announced the deal in August last year, that an agreement had been reached between PayU Payments Private Limited, a subsidiary, and the shareholders of the Indian digital payments provider BillDesk. Closing of the transaction was subject to the fulfilment of various conditions precedent, including approval by the Competition Commission of India. PayU secured CCI approval on Sep. 5, this year. However, “certain conditions precedent were not fulfilled by the Sep. 30 long stop date, and the agreement has terminated automatically,” Prosus said in a statement on its website. Google yesterday announced a list of 20 startups with women founders or co-founders for the first batch of an accelerator programme in India, specifically aimed at encouraging women entrepreneurs. The programme will place special emphasis on areas that “for a variety of social reasons and low representation, prove challenging for female founders,” Google said in a blog post yesterday. Accenture has completed the acquisition of a training and consulting centre of excellence from Stellantis, the world’s fifth biggest automaker. The centre is called World Class Manufacturing Training & Consulting. It supports process optimization in manufacturing and the supply chain. The deal was announced on Sep. 13 and financial terms are not public. Svante Pääbo, a Swedish geneticist, has won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2022, the Nobel Foundation announced on its website yesterday.  The 67-year-old scientist was selected “for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution,” the foundation said in the announcement. Pääbo’s work includes a discovery that proved modern humans share DNA with extinct relatives Neanderthals and a previously unknown hominin, which was named Denisova. The Swedish scientist provided key insights into our immune system and what makes us unique compared with our extinct cousins, the Nobel Prize committee said, India Today reports. Pääbo is the son of Sune Bergstrom, who won the Nobel prize for medicine in 1982. Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds: https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds