Google Inc has emerged along with Microsoft Corp as a contender to buy DoubleClick Inc, presenting competition that stands to increase the final sale price of the online-advertising company, people familiar with the situation said in The Wall Street Journal.
Microsoft has appeared less likely to win the bidding as the potential price for the company surpassed $2 billion, people familiar with the situation said in the Journal.
Yahoo Inc and Time Warner Inc's AOL online unit also have talked to DoubleClick--which is majority-owned by San Francisco private-equity firm Hellman & Friedman--though it is unclear whether AOL is still in the race, these people said in the Journal.
DoubleClick is using investment bank Morgan Stanley to help explore its options, including a possible stock market listing, the Journal reported last week. Hellman & Freidman has reportedly set a price tag of at least $2 billion for the advertising company.
Such a price tag could amount to a hefty return for the private equity firm, which took DoubleClick private in mid-2005 in a deal worth $1.1 billion.
Representatives from Google were not immediately available for comment.
Courtesy : Expressindia.com
Google interested in DoubleClick purchase: WSJ
April 4, 2007, 9:13 amPlan for butterfly park takes flight
April 4, 2007, 9:10 am
Before the monsoon season sets in, Surat is looking forward to get its own eco-tourism hotspot probably in form of the biggest butterfly park in the country.
The Butterfly Park, to be accommodated in the Sarthana Zoo campus, will cover over 17,000 square metre area in comparison to the 10,000 square feet butterfly park at the Bannerghatta National Park near Bangalore and the 40,000 square feet park in Pune.
To be constructed at a net expense of about Rs 2.25 crore, the park will highlight an underground administrative office block for the Sarthana Zoo and the butterfly dome overhead. Close to 500 different species of butterflies will occupy the air space of the 10 metre high polycarbonate netted dome.
Work on the project is already on in full swing and is expected to be complete by monsoon this year. A brainchild of Surat Deputy Commissioner (Special) Pravinsinh Jhala, the project was actually conceived when he was approached by the Sarthana Zoo officials for an administrative block some months back.
“I saw the area and thought that having a conventional office building amidst the greenery would look quite odd, so an underground office with the butterfly park above was planned,’’ Jhala says.
“Once complete, the area will feature a walk-around and most of the landscaping will be done by planting plants like lanterna, milk weeds, potter weed, marigold, cosmos, orange trees, curry leaves and custard apples. Visitors will walk inside the polycarbonate dome that will control the harsh effect of sunlight as well,’’ says Sarthana Zoo Superintendent P J Mehta.
Placards briefing visitors about individual breeds and an audio visual room in the underground administrative block will provide information about each breed of butterflies and elaborate on their life cycles as well. A separate enclosure will be made in the area for a butterfly breeding centre. “However, visitors will not be allowed entry here,’’ said Mehta.
Sarthana Zoo authorities are currently working out the project in consultation with representatives from the Pune-based butterfly park, and are also planning to source some of the most exotic butterflies from abroad. An action plan to take care of the butterflies during harsh weather situation is also being formulated.
Courtesy : Expressindia.com
The Butterfly Park, to be accommodated in the Sarthana Zoo campus, will cover over 17,000 square metre area in comparison to the 10,000 square feet butterfly park at the Bannerghatta National Park near Bangalore and the 40,000 square feet park in Pune.
To be constructed at a net expense of about Rs 2.25 crore, the park will highlight an underground administrative office block for the Sarthana Zoo and the butterfly dome overhead. Close to 500 different species of butterflies will occupy the air space of the 10 metre high polycarbonate netted dome.
Work on the project is already on in full swing and is expected to be complete by monsoon this year. A brainchild of Surat Deputy Commissioner (Special) Pravinsinh Jhala, the project was actually conceived when he was approached by the Sarthana Zoo officials for an administrative block some months back.
“I saw the area and thought that having a conventional office building amidst the greenery would look quite odd, so an underground office with the butterfly park above was planned,’’ Jhala says.
“Once complete, the area will feature a walk-around and most of the landscaping will be done by planting plants like lanterna, milk weeds, potter weed, marigold, cosmos, orange trees, curry leaves and custard apples. Visitors will walk inside the polycarbonate dome that will control the harsh effect of sunlight as well,’’ says Sarthana Zoo Superintendent P J Mehta.
Placards briefing visitors about individual breeds and an audio visual room in the underground administrative block will provide information about each breed of butterflies and elaborate on their life cycles as well. A separate enclosure will be made in the area for a butterfly breeding centre. “However, visitors will not be allowed entry here,’’ said Mehta.
Sarthana Zoo authorities are currently working out the project in consultation with representatives from the Pune-based butterfly park, and are also planning to source some of the most exotic butterflies from abroad. An action plan to take care of the butterflies during harsh weather situation is also being formulated.
Courtesy : Expressindia.com
State high on heritage tourism drive
April 4, 2007, 9:08 am
In its attempt to promote heritage tourism and attract more domestic as well as foreign tourists to Gujarat, the government has come out with a special “Heritage Tourism Incentive Package — 2007” scheme under which private parties will be encouraged to convert historical properties like palaces, forts and havelis into heritage hotels.
Under the incentive package worked out by the State Industries Department, prospective developers, who want to convert heritage properties built before 1950 into hotels, will be exempted from paying electricity duty and luxury tax for five years, and also from the payment of stamp duty on land purchase. To avail these incentives, a heritage hotel must have minimum of 10 well-furnished rooms - 50 % of them with air conditioned facilities.
he other facilities, the prospective developers would have to provide in heritage hotels, include attached bathrooms in all the hotel rooms, parking slots, restaurants and dining rooms for tourists, communication and information gadgets like fax machines, internet and TV and security arrangements for tourists. To avail incentives under the scheme, the eligible party will have to get his unit registered with the Managing Director, Gujarat Tourism Corporation Limited, Gandhinagar.
“There are a number of princely palaces and forts, and also heritage havelis guest houses across Gujarat. Tourists always evince great interest in heritage buildings, royalty of yesteryears and old architecture. The heritage culture of a State has always been a tourists’ attraction. Hence, this decision to promote heritage tourism and offer incentives to prospective private parties,” explains Managing Director, Gujarat Tourism Corporation Ltd, P D Vaghela.
Vaghela told The Express Newsline on Tuesday that the incentive scheme would not only give a further boost to the tourism activity, but also help the erstwhile princes and their family members maintain their properties and earn revenue by converting their properties into heritage hotels.
According to a prominent Ahmedabad-based travel writer Anil Mulchandani, there are about 200 princely palaces, most of them in Saurashtra-Kutch and Central Gujarat, besides 700 to 800 historical havelis across the State.
“Gujarat has more such heritage properties than in the neighbouring Rajasthan. And yet, Rajasthan has over 100 such properties having been converted into heritage hotels attracting a large number of tourists there,” says Mulchandani.
Asked, the travel writer said that it was due to the lack of promotional efforts and clear cut incentive policy that the heritage tourism could not be developed in Gujarat. Now that the State Government has come out for the first time with a special incentive package to promote heritage tourism, it will certainly encourage owners of palaces, forts and havelis to come forward to covert their properties into heritage hotels, he points out.
In fact, there are 18 princely palaces already converted into heritage hotels in Gujarat. Citing the examples of how two such heritage hotels are doing a good business, Mulchandani says,”The annual turnover of the Ahmedabad-based House of Mangaldas (Agasi Hotel) is over Rs two crore, and that of the Neelam Baugh in Bhavnagar is about Rs 1.5 crore.”
Courtesy : Expressindia.com
Under the incentive package worked out by the State Industries Department, prospective developers, who want to convert heritage properties built before 1950 into hotels, will be exempted from paying electricity duty and luxury tax for five years, and also from the payment of stamp duty on land purchase. To avail these incentives, a heritage hotel must have minimum of 10 well-furnished rooms - 50 % of them with air conditioned facilities.
he other facilities, the prospective developers would have to provide in heritage hotels, include attached bathrooms in all the hotel rooms, parking slots, restaurants and dining rooms for tourists, communication and information gadgets like fax machines, internet and TV and security arrangements for tourists. To avail incentives under the scheme, the eligible party will have to get his unit registered with the Managing Director, Gujarat Tourism Corporation Limited, Gandhinagar.
“There are a number of princely palaces and forts, and also heritage havelis guest houses across Gujarat. Tourists always evince great interest in heritage buildings, royalty of yesteryears and old architecture. The heritage culture of a State has always been a tourists’ attraction. Hence, this decision to promote heritage tourism and offer incentives to prospective private parties,” explains Managing Director, Gujarat Tourism Corporation Ltd, P D Vaghela.
Vaghela told The Express Newsline on Tuesday that the incentive scheme would not only give a further boost to the tourism activity, but also help the erstwhile princes and their family members maintain their properties and earn revenue by converting their properties into heritage hotels.
According to a prominent Ahmedabad-based travel writer Anil Mulchandani, there are about 200 princely palaces, most of them in Saurashtra-Kutch and Central Gujarat, besides 700 to 800 historical havelis across the State.
“Gujarat has more such heritage properties than in the neighbouring Rajasthan. And yet, Rajasthan has over 100 such properties having been converted into heritage hotels attracting a large number of tourists there,” says Mulchandani.
Asked, the travel writer said that it was due to the lack of promotional efforts and clear cut incentive policy that the heritage tourism could not be developed in Gujarat. Now that the State Government has come out for the first time with a special incentive package to promote heritage tourism, it will certainly encourage owners of palaces, forts and havelis to come forward to covert their properties into heritage hotels, he points out.
In fact, there are 18 princely palaces already converted into heritage hotels in Gujarat. Citing the examples of how two such heritage hotels are doing a good business, Mulchandani says,”The annual turnover of the Ahmedabad-based House of Mangaldas (Agasi Hotel) is over Rs two crore, and that of the Neelam Baugh in Bhavnagar is about Rs 1.5 crore.”
Courtesy : Expressindia.com
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