MAM
Bombay high court to hear OOH players’ plea on 12 June
MUMBAI: On 5 June, the Bombay High Court, while hearing the plea of Mumbai OOH owners, extended its stay order till 12 June, for waiver of license fee on hoardings for the month of May 2020. According to the verdict, the exemption will only be given to the eight OOH players that have already appealed for the waiver in May.
Creation Publicity Pvt Ltd, Bright Advertising Pvt Ltd, Orion Advertisers, Anurag Sites, Em Vee Advertising Company, Pingle Outdoor, Yoag Advertisers and Pioneer Publicity Corporation Ltd are the players who will get the exemption.
The court has issued a notice to the petitioners to submit the amendments in their petitions to the municipal corporation within a period of two weeks, if there are any. In the meantime, earlier order passed by the court will continue i.e., no coercive steps should be taken by the authority for not paying taxes.
Bright Media Outdoors CMD Yogesh Lakhani shares that due to the crises, all businesses are downhill. “We have requested the civic body to waive off the fee because of the unprecedented crises. For the next four to five months, the situation only looks grim. If people are not stepping out, who will see the hoardings?” he says.
The court also mentioned that the senior counsel appearing for the municipal corporation has asked for a week’s time to take instructions in the matter, due to which no further proceedings could be done.
Sharing the same sentiment as Lakhani, another OOH owner, who opted to be anonymous, says, “Paying such a heavy amount for the period when businesses all over the globe are going through a lull doesn’t make any sense. We are glad that the court has given an extension. While the country is slowly opening up businesses, it seems we will be in a better position in a few months from now.”
Lemma Technologies founder and CEO Gulab Patil says that there has been a heavy impact on the media side, “Most of the advertisers usually plan campaigns in advance, but no one saw this coming. Not just the civic bodies, the publishers are also asking for payments and it puts people in a tough spot. We are just settling down the minimum requirement from the publisher side. We are asking our clients to balance on that.”
As per the high court’s order issued on 5 June, the municipal corporation sought a week's time to take instructions in the matter. If any of the petitioners are desirous of amending the petition, they shall forward the draft amendment to the municipal corporation within a period of two weeks.
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Google nears Nvidia in race for world’s most valuable company
Market cap gap narrows as Google hits $4.65 trillion, Nvidia at $4.86 trillion.
MUMBAI: In the AI gold rush, even the giants are sprinting and Google is suddenly gaining ground. Google is rapidly closing in on Nvidia in the race to become the world’s most valuable publicly listed company, with the gap between the two narrowing sharply amid diverging stock momentum. The tech giant’s market capitalisation has surged to around $4.65 trillion, following a more than 140 per cent rise in its share price over the past year.
That rally has added over $2.6 trillion in value in just 12 months, including nearly $900 billion since January alone. Its stock recently hovered at $381.80, slipping marginally by 0.04 per cent, but still reflecting strong upward momentum.
Nvidia, meanwhile, continues to hold the top spot with a valuation of approximately $4.86 trillion. The chipmaker crossed the $5 trillion milestone in October last year and peaked at $5.27 trillion on 27 April. However, its shares have largely plateaued over the past six months, rising just 0.2 per cent recently to $199.99.
The contrast in trajectories is striking. While Nvidia has seen relatively flat movement, Google has gained over 36 per cent in the same six-month period. Barron’s estimates suggest that if current trends hold, the valuation gap could shrink to as little as $190 million by the time Nvidia reports its first-quarter earnings on 20 May.
Daily momentum paints a similar picture. Nvidia recorded average daily gains of about 0.66 per cent last month, compared to Google’s stronger 1.42 per cent, an edge that could prove decisive in the short term.
Driving Google’s resurgence is its aggressive push into artificial intelligence across its ecosystem, from search and YouTube to cloud computing. The company has already invested $144 billion in capital expenditure over the past two years and plans to deploy a further $490 billion over the next two.
Its cloud division is also gathering pace. Google Cloud reported an order backlog of nearly $220 billion in the latest quarter, with total backlog touching a record $462 billion, around half of which is expected to be realised within two years. The company’s entry into chip sales is also beginning to factor into its growth narrative.
The last time Google briefly topped the S&P 500 by market value was in February 2016, when it edged past Apple for just two days. This time, the stakes and the numbers are far higher.
At the heart of the contest lies a single force: artificial intelligence. As both companies pour billions into infrastructure, chips and platforms, the leaderboard is no longer just about size, it is about who can scale the future faster.
