Software

Dividend stocks: Marico, DB Corp, Sonata Software, 6 others to trade ex-dividend today

Dividend stocks 2023: Shares of DB Corp Ltd, Marico Ltd, Oriental Carbon & Chemicals Ltd, Siyaram Silk Mills Ltd, Sonata Software Ltd, Supreme Industries Ltd, Transport Corporation of India Ltd, Vaibhav Global Ltd, and Venus Pipes & Tubes Ltd will be in focus when the stock market opens today.

The board of directors of these companies have declared dividends for their eligible shareholders.

DB Corp Ltd has declared an interim dividend of Rs 2 per share, the Marico Ltd board has declared a Rs 3 per share interim dividend, Oriental Carbon & Chemicals Ltd has declared an Rs 7 per share interim dividend, Siyaram Silk Mills Ltd has announced Rs 4 per share interim dividend, Sonata Software Ltd has declared an interim dividend of ₹7 per share, Supreme Industries Ltd has declared an interim dividend of ₹8 per share, Transport Corporation of India Ltd has declared an interim dividend of ₹2.5 per share, Vaibhav Global Ltd has declared an interim dividend of ₹1.5 per share, and Venus Pipes & Tubes Ltd has declared Rs 0.50 per share interim dividend.

Marico— The FMCG major reported a 17.26% increase in consolidated net profit at ₹360 crore for the September quarter of 2023-24, driven by softer input costs. Its revenue from operations is marginally reduced to ₹2,476 crore during the quarter from ₹2,496 crore a year ago.

DB Corp – It reported net sales at ₹586.04 crore in the September quarter of fiscal year 2024, up 8.85% from ₹538.40 crore a year ago. Its quarterly net profit stood at ₹100.26 crore, up 105.53% from ₹48.78 crore a year ago. Ebitda stood at ₹167.57 crore in Q2 FY24, up 71.41% from ₹97.76 crore a year ago.

Sonata Software— The IT services and technology company reported 28% YoY growth in consolidated revenue at ₹1,912.6 crore for the second quarter ended 30 September 2023. Its EBITDA stood at ₹220.5 crore, up 33% YoY. Its PAT (profit after tax) stood at ₹124.2 crore, a growth of 10% YoY.

Supreme Industries–Supreme Industries Ltd posted around a three-fold jump in its profit after tax at ₹243.19 crore in the quarter ended September 2023, pushed by higher income. Its total income rose to ₹2,321.38 crore from ₹2,092.12 in the year-ago quarter.

Transport Corporation Of India— TCI reported a 20.3% rise in consolidated net profit to ₹87 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2023. Its consolidated total income in the July-September period increased to ₹1,004.8 crore over ₹939.5 crore a year ago.

Oriental Carbon & Chemicals— The company reported a net profit of ₹8.96 crore in the September quarter of FY 2024, down 4.91% from ₹9.43 crore a year ago. Its net sales stood at ₹111.43 crore in the September quarter, down 20.92% from ₹140.91 crore last fiscal year. Ebitda stood at ₹24.12 crore in Q2 FY24, down 3.33% from ₹24.95 crore a year ago.

Siyaram Silk Mills— The company reported a net profit of ₹61.29 crore in the September quarter of FY 2024, down 23.51% from ₹80.13 crore a year ago. Its net sales stood at ₹585.91 crore in the September quarter, down 7.84% from ₹635.76 crore last fiscal year. Ebitda stood at ₹99.75 crore in Q2 FY24, down 22.51% from ₹128.72 crore a year ago.

Vaibhav Global– The company reported a net profit of ₹29.37 crore in the September quarter of FY 2024, up 28.08% from ₹22.93 crore a year ago. Its net sales stood at ₹705.00 crore in the September quarter, up 9.09% from Rs. 646.26 crore last fiscal year. Ebitda stood at ₹66.91 crore in Q2 FY24, up 28.52% from ₹52.06 crore a year ago.

Venus Pipes & Tubes— The company reported a 94% jump in its profit after tax (PAT) at ₹20.2 crore for the second quarter of this fiscal year, compared with ₹10 crore in the year-ago quarter. Its total sales in the second quarter of this fiscal jumped 51.3% to ₹191.3 crore, compared to ₹126.4 crore in the same period last year.

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Published: 07 Nov 2023, 06:40 AM IST

Software

Unity Software to lay off 1,800 employees, 25% of staff

Pavlo Gonchar | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Unity Software said Monday that it’s cutting 1,800 jobs, or about 25% of its workforce, in the latest round of layoffs at the gaming technology company. The stock jumped almost 5% in extended trading.

Unity said in a regulatory filing that the cuts were part of a corporate restructuring plan. The company told investors in November that it would implement a “comprehensive assessment” of its product portfolio and conduct a financial evaluation that would “likely include discontinuing certain product offerings, reducing our workforce, and reducing our office footprint.”

In the filing, Unity said it’s unable to “reasonably estimate the costs and charges in connection with this reduction, which it expects will be substantially substantial in the first quarter of 2024.”

It has been a rough past year for Unity. In May, the company announced a round of layoffs that affected 600 employees, or about 8% of its workforce, a move Unity said was intended to help generate “long-term and profitable growth.”

In September, Unity announced a pricing change that upset numerous developers who rely on the company’s technology to create video games. A consortium of game developers protested the change, saying in a public letter that it “jeopardizes small and large game developers alike” and was “made without any industry consultation.”

The following month, John Riccitiello retired as Unity’s CEO, also stepping down as chairman and leaving the board. James Whitehurst, the former CEO of Red Hat, was named interim CEO while Roelof Botha, the lead independent director of Unity’s Board and a Sequoia Capital partner, became chairman.

While the shares rose more than 40% for the year, they lost almost half their value between July and the end of October. In its third-quarter earnings report, Unity missed analysts’ expectations and didn’t issue quarterly guidance.

“Our results in the third quarter were mixed,” Unity said at the time in a letter to shareholders. “While revenue comes within guidance, we believe we can do better.”

WATCH: Unity Software’s John Riccitiello retires as president and CEO

Unity Software's John Riccitiello retires as president and CEO

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Software

iOS 17.4: What to expect in Apple’s next major software update | Technology News

Apple recently released the first beta of iOS 17.4 for eligible iPhones, marking significant changes that could fundamentally change how one uses an iPhone, especially in the European market. This update unlocks new avenues on the iPhone, finally opening up the walled garden to others with support for third-party app stores, payment gateways, and more.

Here are some of the most prominent changes that Apple is introducing to the iPhone with the upcoming iOS 17.4 update:

  1. 01

    Ability to sideload apps and games

    While users still won’t be able to download any app from the web and install it on their iPhones, iOS 17.4 is finally paving the way for third parties to have their own app store for iPhones. This will allow users to install apps from sources outside the official App Store in the European Union. Since the inception of the iPhone, Apple has never allowed users to sideload or install apps from outside the App Store without jailbreaking. This is changing with the iOS 17.4 update.

  2. 02

    Third-party payment gateways

    This is again a Europe-exclusive feature where app developers can now incorporate their own payment gateways. This means apps like a Spotify subscription could cost a lot less, and it could also enable platforms like Netflix to allow users to finally subscribe to their services directly from their app. This development could also reduce the prices of some apps and games, as developers no longer have to pay up to 30 per cent. Additionally, this change should allow users in Europe to use other wireless payment services similar to Apple Pay for making contactless payments.

  3. 03

    Browsers with third-party engines

    iOS 17.4 will also allow app makers to develop web browsers without the restrictions of web kit, and this specific policy change will help brands to develop fully custom web browsers for iPhones. Opera has already announced that it is working on an AI-powered web browser, which will soon be available for iPhones.

  4. 04

    Stolen device protection

    Apple is also making your iPhone a lot more secure with iOS 17.4 by introducing new “stolen device protection” rules, where, one might need both pincode and Face ID/Touch ID biometric authentication to remove an Apple ID from an iPhone or to factory reset the device.

  5. 05

    Region identifier

    While it was pretty straightforward to change the country or a region on an iPhone, iOS 17.4 could make it a little more difficult with the introduction of a new regional identifier, where, Apple would automatically determine the specific region of a user, which is likely to help the company to restrict several mentioned features to the European region.

  6. 06

    New emojis

    Emojis help us express ourselves, and with the iOS 17.4 update, Apple is adding as many as 100 new emojis, which include phoenix, lime slice emoji, mushroom, broken chains, and more. These emojis should definitely help users to add more context while texting.

  7. 07

    Podcasts to get auto-generated transcripts

  8. 08

    Stopwatch in live activities

    If you have an iPhone with Dynamic Island, you can now access the stopwatch via the live activity feature. Just open the clock app. Start the stopwatch and come back to the home screen, you can see this timer within Dynamic Island. To use this feature, you either need to have an iPhone 14 Pro or an iPhone 15 series.

  9. 09

    Series gains more capabilities

    iOS 17.4 is also making Siri a lot smarter, where, the personal assistant can now message in multiple languages ​​via the Message with Siri service. This enables users to send a message via the iMessage with simple audio prompts in multiple languages ​​at the same time.

  10. 10

    Music app gets a makeover

    Apple is also changing the UI of the music app with iOS 17.4, where, the listen now button has been replaced by the home button, which will take you to a new menu, especially if you are a subscriber, which will include recommendations, and recently played music.