Tata's JLR invests in Uber rival Lyft for driverless cars

InMotion's investment in Lyft makes India's Tata Group an indirect shareholder

Company News :Tata Motors-owned British luxury carmakr Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has invested $25 million in US ride-hailing company Lyft as part of a partnership that includes development and testing of autonomous cars.

The investment in Uber's chief rival Lyft was done through InMotion Ventures, the venture capital arm of JLR. This was part of the $600-million funding round the ride-hailing firm closed in April at a valuation of $7.5 billion.

In a statement, InMotion said that the innovation would help Lyft expand by supplying its drivers with fleets of Jaguar and Land Rover cars. However, more importantly, it said that the partnership would be used to further its research and development in mobility services, including autonomous cars.

"Personal mobility and smart transportation is evolving. This new collaborative venture will provide a real-world platform, helping us develop our connected and autonomous services," VentureBeat quoted Sebastian Peck, Managing Director at InMotion.

In May, Lyft announced its partnership with Google's self-driving vehicle spinoff, Waymo to work on developing new autonomous car technologies. The company's focus on autonomous cars comes at a time when its rival Uber is in the midst of a crisis that could see founder Travis Kalanick taking leave, temporarily.

One of Uber's biggest headaches right now is a lawsuit filed by Waymo, accusing Anthony Levandowski- a former Waymo employee who founded self-driving truck start-up Otto - of stealing its IP(Internet Protocol). Otto was bought out by Uber in August last year and while the company fired Levandowski recently, it is still being investigated for fraud.

Cyrus Mistry gives up the battle but set for a bigger war with Tatas

After a bitter eight-week boardroom battle against Ratan Tata’s “illegal coup”, ousted Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry on Monday quit from the boards of six listed companies, including Tata Motors and Indian Hotels. He vowed to shift his fight to a “larger platform” as the “coercive action taken by Tatas against various stakeholders was making him uneasy”.

In an interview to Business Standard, Mistry promised to take his fight against the Tatas to a legal forum but did not give details. “In the past eight weeks, I saw a lot of coercive action from the Tatas towards shareholders, debt holders and employees, which is making all the three uncomfortable. In various representations to shareholders, I had said it was not about me or about my position. My resignation proves that," Mistry said.

He would, however, continue to remain a director on the board of Tata Sons. The announcement of Mistry’s resignation came after he attended a “routine” Tata Sons board meeting during the day. Monday’s board meeting brought Mistry and his former mentor, Tata, in the same room for the first time (since October 24) but they did not speak to each other, according to sources.

“The interests of employees, shareholders and other stakeholders of the Tata group would be better served by (me) moving away from the forum of extraordinary general meetings (EGMs),” Mistry said in a two-page letter. “But, the time has come to take matters to their logical conclusion. I will work on protecting the interests of the Tata group and realising the vision of our founder Jamsetji Tata, until my last breath,” he added.

"Mistry can move the National Company Law Tribunal against Tata Sons for oppression of small shareholders. He can also move the Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India) if he has information that the Trusts had indulged in inside-trading or did not follow corporate governance norms,” said R S Loona, a Mumbai-based corporate lawyer. (more)

16 kg gold biscuits recovered from baby diapers at Indira Gandhi International Airport

Mistry was removed as director of Tata Industries on Monday, this week

Cyrus Mistry was today removed as director of Tata Industries following shareholders' vote, the first such instance of the embattled executive being ousted from the board since his removal as Tata Group chairman.

Mistry also ceases to be the chairman of the company following his removal as director, Tata Industries said.

"Tata Industries, at its extraordinary general meeting on December 12, 2016, removed Cyrus P Mistry, as a director of the company. Hence, he also has ceased to be the chairman of the company," it said.

Mistry was abruptly ousted as chairman of Tata Sons -- the holding company of the USD 103 billion salt-to-software conglomerate -- on October 24. Since then, interim Chairman Ratan Tata has moved to consolidate his position by seeking to remove Mistry from boards of key listed firms.

Even with the latest development, the Tata vs Mistry battle has been raging unabated, with both sides taking shots at each other over the past week.

Here's what you've missed of the boardroom battle that has India Inc, and the country's, attention.

Mistry refutes Tata's allegations

Refuting allegations that he misled the selection committee set up in 2011 to find new Tata Sons Chairman, Mistry on Sunday hit out at Tata Sons Interim Chairman Ratan Tata saying his predecessor's "conduct has eroded the Tata brand and values materially".

On a series of allegations leveled against him by Tata Sons in a letter to stakeholders of Tata firms, Mistry said, "Repeat a lie a thousand times and hope it becomes a truth, seems to be Ratan Tata's last-ditch effort to overcome a monumental disaster his actions have unleashed." ( Read more here)

Tatas accuse Mistry of misleading selection committee to get selected as chairman

Mistry's rebuttal came after Tata Sons said that Mistry had misled the selection committee set up in 2011 for selecting a chairman to succeed Ratan Tata.

"Mistry made lofty statements about plans for Tata Group, but didn't give into effect management structures and plans he promised," stated Tata Sons. Mistry did not distance himself from his family enterprise Shapoorji Pallonji & Co as promised, Tata Sons further stated in a press release. ( Read the details here)

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Full text: Why Tata Sons lost confidence in Cyrus Mistry

Even as both camps in the Tata vs Mistry boardroombattle get ready for the impending extraordinary general meetings of various Tata group companies to oust former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus as director, the war of words through statements and counter-statements do not seem to end. On Sunday, while the Ratan Tata camp alleged that Mistry misled the selection committee to become the chairman of Tata Sons, Mistry’s office stated that Ratan Tata had been repeating the same lie a thousand times and hoping it to become a truth.

ALSO READ: Mistry misled to become chairman, says Tata Sons

Here is the full text of the Tata group’s letter to stakeholders explaining why the group lost its confidence in Cyrus Mistry:

AN APPEAL FROM THE TATA GROUP TO ALL STAKEHOLDERS OF TATA COMPANIES

Extraordinary General Meetings of various Tata Companies are coming up over the next few weeks. We, at Tata Sons Ltd., the principal shareholder and promoters of the various Tata Companies, would like to thank you for your continued support. In order to assist you to exercise your shareholder rights in an informed manner, it would be appropriate to bring to your attention some key facts which resulted in the loss of confidence in Mr. Cyrus P. Mistry by Tata Sons.

1. Mr. Cyrus Mistry misled the Selection Committee set up in 2011 for selecting a Chairman of Tata Sons to succeed Mr. Ratan Tata, by making lofty statements about his plans for the Tata Group and more importantly indicated an elaborate management structure for managing the Tata Group, given its diversity of business, by suggesting a management structure aimed at dispersal of authority and responsibility. These statements and commitments from Mr. Cyrus Mistry played an important role in the Selection Committee’s final selection of Mr. Mistry as Chairman. After waiting for a period of four years, almost none of these management structures and plans have been given effect to. Clearly, in our opinion, the Selection Committee was misled in its choice of Mr. Mistry. Read more

Nifty hovers above 8,550; Tata Motors up 4%

Nifty hovers above 8,550; Tata Motors up 4%

Markets have shrugged off the clearance of GST in the upper house and are trading in a narrow range with Sensex and Nifty swinging between negative and positive zone.

By 10:25 am, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 48 points at 27,746 and the Nifty50 gained 14 points to trade 8,559. Broader markets are outperforming the benchmark indices- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are up 0.5% each.

"Contrary to popular belief, the passage of the GST Constitutional Amendment marks only the beginning of a fairly tedious procedure that should ultimately result in the implementation of a unified GST in India at best by 2HFY18. Even as the adoption of a unified GST is one of the most remarkable tax reforms from a long-term perspective, in the short-term we highlight that this is likely to result in (1) a mild pick-up in inflation as hitherto untaxed goods and services are now brought under the tax net, (2) a meaningful loss of jobs in the informal sector as this sector will no longer be able to fly under the radar of the taxman and (3) consequently trigger pro-electorate measures in the form of higher revenue expenditure from FY18 onwards as the Modi-led BJP Government begins preparing for the 2019 General Elections," adds Ritika Mankar Mukherjee, Senior Economist, Ambit Capital.(more)

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