Daily Tech Snippet: Wednesday, April 8

• Twitter shares up on takeover bid rumors, unusual options activity: Is Twitter facing a takeover bid? Some investors hope so. Twitter shares are way up in Tuesday trading, and not because people really like the new design of its tweet-quoting feature. Rumors are flying after numerous press reports, including one from Barron's citing "chatter" that Twitter is fending off a takeover bid. According to Barron's Tiernan Ray, that "unsubstantiated chatter" has also identified Goldman Sachs as the advising firm Twitter's hired to keep takover offers at bay. Twitter declined to comment. The company's shares closed nearly 4 percent up to $52.87 per share. The stock opened at $51.01 and went as high as $53.28 on the admittedly sketchy reports. This is not the first time there's been talk of a Twitter takeover. It's been batted about for years, well before Twitter went public, and the idea resurfaced as recently as January that Google might be the suitor in question. Google has again been named as a possible buyer in this latest round of rumors; the company declined to comment on rumor and speculation. Twitter's had some problems growing its audience since going public, which it's addressed by revamping the site's design to make it easier for newcomers to understand. Unusual options activity: Twitter options active on deal chatter: Twitter Inc's (TWTR.N) shares jumped 5 percent and activity in its options surged on Tuesday on unsubstantiated market chatter about the company fending off a takeover bid. The microblogging service provider's shares rose to $53.28, the highest they have been since October, on market chatter that the company has hired advisers to rebuff a takeover bid. Twitter's options were unusually active on Tuesday with total volume more than 250,000 contracts, or twice the average daily volume, according to Trade Alert data. Call options, usually used to place bullish bets on shares, outnumbered puts by a ratio of nearly 3 to 1. The reading is about the highest it has been in favor of calls since the beginning of March.

• India startup action #1: Quikr gets $150M funding as it battles global giants for India’s classifieds market: Quikr, a classifieds site that’s one of India’s best-funded startups, today revealed that it has secured a further US$150 million in funding. This is its eighth major round of funding, which now totals nearly US$350 million. “The big things for us going forward are to continue to innovate for India, innovate for mobile, and go deeper in key categories where we already are leaders,” said Pranay Chulet, founder and CEO of Quikr, in a statement. The fresh investment will go towards Quikr’s push for smartphone users and to help build an upcoming, spin-off real estate portal, reports NextBigWhat. More here: Quikr raises $150M from Tiger Global, Kinnevik & Steadview Capital: Online classifieds site Quikr.com, has raised $150 million (over Rs 900 crore) from existing investors Tiger Global and Sweden’s Kinnevik besides a new investor Steadview Capital Management, it said on Tuesday. The venture essentially competes with Naspers-backed OLX in the P2P classifieds business in India. This fresh round of funding will be used to further invest in Quikr’s fast growing mobile business and in its key categories such as cars, real estate, jobs and services. Founded in 2008 by Chulet and Jiby Thomas (who quit the firm later), Quikr was originally started as Kijiji India. The firm later rebranded to Quikr. It is a large scale cross-category classifieds business with over 30 million consumers. These consumers come to Quikr to sell, buy, rent or find products and services in a variety of categories such as electronics and household goods, real estate, cars, bikes, jobs and services. The firm claims that small businesses across 1,000 cities are using the site. It recently announced the launch of a new classifieds website for real estate called quikrhomes.com to allow B2C as well as C2C discovery of properties up for sale as well as those available for rent. For new investor Steadview Capital, this marks another large deal in India. Last year the Hong Kong-based alternative assets manager had backed marquee firms in the digital commerce space in India—e-com venture Flipkart and online cabs aggregator Ola.

• Apple to Push Watch Buyers Online to Avoid Long Lines at Stores: When it comes to buying the Apple Watch, it’s time to think different. Angela Ahrendts, Apple Inc.’s sales chief, wants to scrap the company’s tradition of having customers wait in line, sometimes for days, to get their hands on the latest gadget. Apple has instructed its sales force to prod shoppers to the company’s website to purchase the new smartwatch, which can be pre-ordered Friday. “The days of waiting in line and crossing fingers for a product are over for our customers,” according to a memo to Apple sales staff. “This is a significant change in mindset and we need your help to make it happen.” Business Insider earlier reported on the memo. The approach is the first indication of where Ahrendts is taking the Apple buying experience since joining the company about a year ago from British luxury retailer Burberry Group Plc. While the Apple watch starts as low as $349, its top-end $17,000 gold version pushes the Cupertino, California-based company into a new, lofty realm. “This is not simply a consumer-electronics good -- it’s a luxury good,” J.P. Gownder, an analyst with Forrester Research, said. “There are a lot of good reasons to” to change “but there is that danger that it maybe a little bit, literally, buzz killing.” Apple on Friday begins taking pre-orders online after 3:01 a.m. New York time. Shoppers also will be able to try on the device starting Friday, by appointment. Apple hasn’t begun accepting appointments yet. The watch officially goes on sale April 24 in eight countries and Hong Kong. Encouraging Apple Watch shoppers to make appointments may help the company explain the complicated pricing and options and sell customers on why they would really want it, Gownder said. The watch is being offered in two sizes and three styles as well as different options for bands. The iPhone 6, for example, has three memory and three color options. The watch -- which aims to provide new ways to communicate, track fitness goals and give directions, among other things -- is the first new gadget from Apple in five years. The visibility may help bring greater attention to the total market for wearable devices, such as offerings from Samsung Electronics Co. The global market for all smartwatches may rise to 28.1 million units this year from 4.6 million, according to researcher Strategy Analytics. Sales of the Apple Watch may reach almost 14 million in the fiscal year through September, according to the average estimate of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

• Square Is Using Customer Data to Create Targeted Email Campaigns for Brands Leaping from mobile payments to marketing: Linking online and offline marketing is the ultimate challenge for bricks-and-mortar retailers these days. And after years of powering credit card transactions and mobile payments for small businesses, Square thinks it has found a solution. Today, the San Francisco-based payment company launches Square Marketing—a marketing tool that lets small businesses target customers who shop in stores through email promotions. Since launching in 2009, the mobile payment company has helped merchants and businesses electronically accept credit card payments, collecting a trove of data in the process. Now, the goal is to help brands take action on that data. "The first big step is to empower these small businesses with tools that help them deepen their relationships with their customers," said Kevin Burke, head of customer acquisition at Square. "For the first time, small businesses can now deliver a message to the right person at the right time with the right context, which will increase the likelihood for that customer to value that engagement and also act on it." Merchants that use Square get monthly reports that break down anonymous payment data. Now, businesses will be able to see which sales came from new customers versus returning shoppers. They'll also find out how often customers visited their stores each month. With that data, businesses can target shoppers through email marketing. Emails are targeted based on three groups of customers: those that make three, two or fewer than one visit to a store every six months. Businesses either pay 10 cents per email or $15 a month for unlimited emails. Square has templates brands can use to push out promotions, events and announcements. After sending out an email blast, Square compares email recipients with credit card swipes to show marketers how it drove actual sales. During the tool's pilot program, Square claims merchants doubled their email open rates and redemptions, generating $1 million in sales. Still, Square has a number of competitors that are all going after small businesses. "By getting into this space, they are officially becoming a small business platform, similar to where GoDaddy is trying to go," said Abid Chaudhry, a senior analyst at BIA/Kelsey. "It's a really saturated market, so they have to differentiate themselves with data." Jeanne Jennings, managing director of digital marketing at Digital Prism Advisors, went so far as to say that connecting offline data to email marketing could be a game-changer that puts Square ahead of big-name email service providers like ExactTarget and Silverpop. "If they're going to tie in data, I would suggest that it's more powerful than a Silverpop," Jennings said of Square. "[The opportunity] is huge and is something not a lot of people are doing successfully." But Christopher Donald, a strategist at Inbox Group, predicted larger email service providers like Square won't crush Silverpop and ExactTarget because Square primarily works with small brands, like mom-and-pop coffee shops and clothing boutiques. Small business owners aren't as well versed as big brands in digital marketing, which means Square may need to teach them the ins and outs of email marketing. "They have a chance with small businesses, but most small businesses have little experience with email marketing and even less with targeted messaging based on data collected," Donald noted. "So they'll need to make it really simple, automated and easy, or the small business owner won't take the time to learn anything that has a large learning curve."

• Xiaomi ends exclusive arrangement with Flipkart, will sell on Amazon, Snapdeal, others in India: When Xiaomi first launched in India last July, the Chinese gadget maker did so with online-only sales through one ecommerce store – Flipkart. That ends today as Xiaomi’s India boss, Manu Kumar Jain, announced a wide array of new ways for Indian consumers to buy its smartphones or tablets. Xiaomi has tapped Airtel India’s stores for sales before with the Redmi Note 4G, but the sales channels through Amazon India, Snapdeal, and The Mobile Stores are brand-new. The Mobile Stores has 300 outlets across the country. In addition to that, Jain announced today that Xiaomi would do away with its pre-registrations for flash sales of its Redmi 2 and Mi Pad in a sign that the company is better able to produce supply to meet demand. Xiaomi’s flash sales have been criticized by some users for proving frustrating.

• India startup action #2: Indian mobile wallet MobiKwik scores $25M from Sequoia, Amex, Tree Line, Cisco: Tree Line Asia, Cisco Investments, American Express, and Sequoia Capital are betting on MobiKwik. The firms gave close to US$25 million to the mobile wallet startup. Based in India, MobiKwik is a mobile payment solution. MobiKwik wants to be the only payment service people need. Since the startup has partnered with the major credit cards and 51 internet banking providers as well as 25,000 merchants, users can pay bills and buy products with the service. With partner companies, there is no need to input data like a credit card string. Users just need to sign in and pay, similar to rival Paytm. Cash can be added to your accounts at physical retail stores. Though a browser version exists, the company is best known for its Android, iOS, and Windows apps.

• HP Comes to Terms With the Cloud: A year ago, Hewlett-Packard thought it was going to change cloud computing. Now it looks more as if cloud computing is changing HP, just as the company enters one of the greatest attempts at reorganization in the history of technology. Meg Whitman, HP’s chief executive, will at the end of October split HP into two companies. One will be generally focused on business technology and one on consumer-friendly areas of personal computers and printers. HP thought it would compete with Amazon, Google, and Microsoft for business rentals of computing power via so-called public cloud assets. Companies like Netflix, Snapchat and 3M now run significant parts of their businesses in such clouds, and the field is growing rapidly. After looking at the market, however, HP is now ceding the public cloud. “We thought people would rent or buy computing from us,” said Bill Hilf, the head of HP’s cloud business. “It turns out that it makes no sense for us to go head-to-head.” HP is still selling servers, but increasingly it looks like its biggest customers will be cloud companies themselves, or other computing behemoths, like Facebook. For thousands of other customers, Ms. Whitman hopes to build smaller cloud systems, while figuring out ways these companies can also use Amazon or Microsoft. One such buyer, the Fox Entertainment Group, uses HP computers to create content, but it looks to Microsoft to run its email or handle heavy workloads of noncritical information It uses a cloud run by Salesforce.com for sales management, and others to share things like the latest film both with artists inside Fox and with outside special effects and marketing companies. HP has some business in selling equipment, and more in the related businesses of management and security software, among other things, to hold the disparate parts together. “We have to balance decisions about the content we’re creating that we have to control, with security, financial and work-flow decisions,” said John Herbert, the chief information officer at Fox. “We’ve pushed HP to give us a lot of automation and flexibility.” That is a big change after an understandable mistake. HP dominated the sales of computer servers to business, so it probably looked like an easy transition to selling computing in a new way. In fact, the scale of the big public clouds, each with more than one million servers, is hard to learn, and the field is a tough place for newcomers to profit.