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Number game
Many multinational companies are reluctant to disclose their India revenue figures, but willingly quote growth rate figures. They often cite global financial reporting policy as a reason for not disclosing country specific figures.
Recently, Asus sent out a press release that claimed that the success of Eee PC had propelled its India operations to grow by over 1,100 percent. Yes, you read it right—its FY08 revenues grew 11 times from its FY07 topline.
While a majority of newspapers and magazines published this outrageous number, CRN refrained from carrying the press release and sought a clarification from the components major. Asus stuck to its ground and reconfirmed that it had actually grown at such a fast pace; thanks to the sales of 10,000 Eee PC units during the period.
But despite the reconfirmation, CRN team didn’t relent in its pursuit to find out the truth and spoke to Asus distributors to verify Asus’ India revenue. Eventually, Asus accepted that there was a mistake in quoting the growth figure and the growth rate of 1,100 percent was only for its notebook business and not for their overall India revenues. Finally!
Anandan’s return
 In what can be called a u-turn, Dell India ex-VP and country head, Rajan Anandan is back in India but this time to head Microsoft India’s sales operations. When Anandan quit Dell India in June this year, there were several speculations surrounding his sudden exit from Dell.
While the Dell press release said that Anandan was starting out on his own in the US, many in the industry speculated that he had to return to US as he failed to get a visa extension to stay on in India. Anandan is a Sri Lankan by birth and only had a 3-year work visa in India.
Anandan’s associates at Dell India still maintain that he had no plans to join Microsoft when he left India and this is a sudden and surprising development even for them. Whatever the truth, we are delighted to have him back and wish him all the best for his new assignment. We just hope he is more forthcoming with the media than he was at Dell. |