EMI has announced the renewal of their exclusive contract with the Berliner Philharmoniker for another five years.

As EMI’s A&R director Stephen Johns commented, it is the BPO’s “uncompromising commitment to the highest of standards in all aspects of their music-making that sets them out as perhaps the finest orchestra in the world”. The first recording to emerge under the new agreement is Ravel’s opera L’enfant et les sortilèges (the cast included Annick Massis, Mojca Erdmann, Magdalena Kozená, Sophie Koch, Nathalie Stutzmann, Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, François Le Roux and José van Dam). It is scheduled for release next March.

The new agreement gives both organisations more flexibility than in the past and also allows the orchestra to disseminate performances with Rattle – with whom the label has an exclusive contract – more widely. (A video recording of the Aix-en-Provence Festival Die Walküre, for example, featuring both conductor and orchestra, is due for release from BelAir next month.)

EMI made its first recording with the BPO in 1913 (Beethoven’s Fifth conducted by Arthur Nikisch) and down the years has been associated with many of the orchestra’s conductors, including Furtwängler, Karajan and Abbado as well as guests like Barenboim, Jansons and Muti. Source

Hinduja group company and outsourcing major, HTMT Global Solutions, has allocated $100-million for BPO company acquisitions in the domestic and international markets, a top company official said.

“We are looking at acquisition of BPO companies and have earmarked a $100-million for the purpose. But we are not in a rush,” HTMT’s Chairman, Ramkrishan P Hinduja, said at the company’s annual general meeting held here.  HTMT is a key provider of relationship management solutions, business process outsourcing, outsourced call centre sales/service support and market research.  The company has a presence in six countries with around 75 clients, 21 centres, 9,600 seats and 12,652 employees.

HTMT Global Solutions was hived off from Hinduja TMT, last year.  Describing zibika as a social medium or network on personal finance, Doraiswami said “I am trying to build up a community like Orkut where users can connect with friends and share information on personal finance.”

“We also provide EMI-based search results,” he said, adding “besides, users can compare products and then pick up the one which suits them the best.”  The company provides content on 64 banks and around 15 NBFCs as well as all active insurance players in the market.  The portal already has 2,000 registered users and expects to break-even in two years. “I am aiming for a couple of million users,” Doraiswami said.

Revenues would mainly accrue from advertising, he said, adding the company has just started its marketing initiative. Source