One important thing: It seems like the fireworks between Elon Musk and Twitter are coming to an end (hopefully!). Bankers and lawyers of both sides are preparing paperwork for the buyout to be completed by the Oct 28 court-issued deadline.

• Meanwhile, Twitter also allayed layoff fears of employees, saying they currently have no such plans. This was following a report by The Washington Post which stated that Elon Musk plans to get rid of nearly 75% of the company's 7,500 workers.

In today’s newsletter:

• PhonePe eyes Decacorn club
• Google reacts to CCI blow
• The “Persistent” moonlighting woes

Bonus: Six veterans of Dalal Street talk about markets, sectors and stocks to watch in this special Diwali discussion with Moneycontrol's N Mahalakshmi. Watch the show.

Programming note: Wishing all our readers a Happy and prosperous Diwali. There will be no edition of MC Tech3 on October 23 and we’ll be back in your inbox on Tuesday!

Winter is coming but not for PhonePe, the payments and financial services unicorn backed by e-commerce behemoth Walmart. 

• According to sources, PhonePe has tapped General Atlantic for a funding round that will value the company at a whopping $12 billion.

Moneycontrol has learnt that General Atlantic alone is likely to pump in $450-$500 million in the round.

If the round goes through, the fresh valuation will make PhonePe the most valued Indian fintech. That tag is currently held by B2B payments and neobanking platform Razorpay, which is valued at $7.5 billion.

PhonePe will also become a decacorn, meaning a startup valued at over $10 billion, joining the likes of Flipkart, which was acquired by Walmart, Paytm (which went public last year), Byju’s and Swiggy. 

These fundraising discussions coincide with PhonePe's plans to list on Indian stock exchanges. However, this is not a pre-IPO round because the company's public listing plans are at least 2-3 years away, according to sources.

• PhonePe plans to use the funds to further its ambitions of becoming a financial services super app, offering everything from payments to insurance to investments to commerce.

The company was valued at $5.5 billion when it was hived off into a separate entity by Flipkart.

• Flipkart had pumped in $700 million then.

From a startup incubated by Flipkart in 2015 to a decacorn in seven years, it’s been quite the bits to billions journey for PhonePe. 

Read more

A day after India’s antitrust watchdog slapped a hefty fine on Google and made scathing remarks on its Android policies, the tech giant has hit back saying the move would hurt the “security of Indian users and make mobile phones costlier.”

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has prised open Google's playbook of preserving its 96 percent market share in India's 600-million-strong smartphone market.

• It has asked the company to steer clear of anti-competitive agreements with device makers

• It has paved the way for users of Android devices to choose whether or not they want to use Google services like search, maps, etc.

• Asked Google to remove roadblocks for developers who want to build competitive operating systems, play stores and applications on Android

Read our deep dive on what CCI’s order means for all stakeholders

Big Tech firms have been targeted by antitrust regulators around the world in recent years, but have found India to be a relatively safe haven, at least in terms of competition regulation.

This status quo is now being challenged by India's efforts to build a trillion-dollar digital economy in the coming years. "Our policies will prevent market distortion by big IT businesses," Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar told Moneycontrol in August.

PhonePe-owned Indus OS is one of the Indian mobile developers who has been stifled by Google's policies over the last decade. Here is what co-founder Rakesh Deshmukh, who was ecstatic following yesterday's order, told Moneycontrol:

• The CCI order gives a window of opportunity for Indian app stores as Google is yet to provide a level playing field.

• Developers can now compete with Google and build better products customised for India

• The battle will go on as changes will also need to be brought at the level of device makers and secondary Android developers

Persistent Systems, a mid-tier IT services company, is the latest technology company from India to express concern over rising incidences of moonlighting in the industry. The company, like its peers Wipro, HCLTech, Infosys, and TCS, stated it has already got rid of a "handful of employees" who were found to be moonlighting.

Following the announcement of its Q2FY23 earnings, CEO Sandeep Kalra and CFO Sunil Sapre spoke with us about the company's existing rules on moonlighting.

• Kalra said that the company gives freedom to employees to choose if they want to work full-time or on a contractual basis

• Those opting for a full-time role are not supposed to have another employment

Persistent, which operates its own intellectual properties, highlights concerns that client contracts mandate the company to have full-time employees on projects. If not, that needs to be specified and requires the client’s approval.

• Contractual employees are assigned limited tasks, which don’t involve running teams or being privy to confidential internal information.

Moonlighting has been a growing concern for the Indian IT sector amidst a tough business environment and high employee attrition rates. As most employees were working remotely, they managed to squeeze in dual jobs. Companies like TCS and Wipro are now asking employees to come back to the office at least two to three days a week.

Meanwhile, Persistent Systems reported strong numbers for its July-September quarter. Revenue grew by 51.6 percent YoY, while profit after tax grew nearly 36 percent YoY.

Despite the controversy surrounding moonlighting, companies have now come around to framing policies.

• We reported yesterday that Infosys will allow employees to take on external assignments with the prior approval of their manager. While there are a few exceptions, this marks a shift in tone from the previous harsh condemnation of the practice.

Although Infosys does not refer to it as "moonlighting," and dual employment would be prohibited, the policy has garnered the approval of industry experts. They say that this is a step in the right direction for employees who want to pursue different avenues, and also makes it clear what is and isn’t allowed.

The days of soan papdi being given out as Diwali gifts by companies are long gone. This year, organisations are giving employees a choice between digital and physical gifts.

Biz2Credit, an online financing platform for small businesses, is one such company.

• The company has given BMW bikes to outstanding performers and iPads to emerging superstars.
• In addition, the company has announced that the top performers will get up to 40 times their performance-linked incentives (PLIs), cash rewards, silver coins, etc.

Check out our special story.

• Do Kwon, the co-founder of Terraform Labs, is alleged to have left Singapore for Dubai, according to a Bloomberg report. There were rumours on Thursday that Kwon had left Singapore last month and arrived in Dubai. South Korean authorities have reportedly stated that the report was "not false."
  
  
• The US unit of Binance has hired former FBI agent BJ Kang as its first head of investigations. Kang will engage closely with law enforcement, regulators, and other crypto companies in his new role. The company said it will build Binance.US’ own “investigations infrastructure” to identify and mitigate crypto-related criminal activities on the platform.

What could be more fitting to watch this Diwali weekend than the tale of why we celebrate the festival of lights? 

The story of Lord Rama and the Demon King Ravana has been passed down through generations as a tale of Dharma triumphing over Adharma, good defeating evil.

In Legends of the Ramayana with Amish, an original series on Discovery+, award-winning author Amish Tripathi explores the sacred geography of one of the world's greatest epics.

Watch it on Discovery+

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