One quick thing: 21,000 Coforge employees to get iPads as the firm crosses $1 billion revenue milestone.

In today’s newsletter:

• Wipro, Tech Mahindra disappoint 
• JioCinema steals Hotstar's thunder
• Oyo turns cash flow positive in Q4FY23

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The day was dominated by IT earnings, particularly the disappointing numbers from Wipro and Tech Mahindra. This brings the earnings for the top five IT players to a close in an otherwise dismal results season.

• The company’s revenue growth in constant currency terms was -0.6%, the lower end of its guidance. The company’s dollar revenue was up 0.7% sequentially
   
• Margins for Q4 were flat sequentially, but fell 200 bps for the year 
  
  
• Deal bookings of $4.1 billion
  
  
• Headcount decreased by 1,823 employees for the quarter, with attrition trending downward 

The kicker: The company’s guidance for Q1 is -3% to -1%, which is weaker than expected.

Some good news? Wipro has approved a tender buyback of shares worth Rs 12,000 crore at Rs 445, a 19% premium to the current market price.

• Big miss on the margin front — came in at 9.6%, down from 12% last quarter
  
  
• Q4 net profit was down 13.8% sequentially, revenue down 0.1%
  
  
• In constant currency, revenue was up 0.3% QoQ 
  
  
• Headcount down by 4,688 employees

The impact of the banking crisis was expected on all companies this quarter, with both Tech Mahindra and Wipro seeing softness in this vertical. Telecom and retail/consumer packaged goods were also affected.

Wipro's leadership has said that discretionary spending has been impacted and that the macro environment will be challenging at least in the first quarter of FY24. 

• There was no commentary on hiring numbers for the year or quarter ahead 

Meanwhile, despite a drab performance, Tech Mahindra's management is bullish that it has made the right investments in futuristic technologies and employee upskilling in FY23, which will make it "future-ready."

• CEO and MD CP Gurnani believes the IT services sector will experience a "resurgence" in the near future

Check out the Coforge and LTIMindtree numbers as well.

"Where can we watch Succession?"

This is probably the most frequently asked question in the last month, since HBO content was removed from Disney+ Hotstar on March 31.

We finally have an answer!

The iconic show, along with other Warner Bros. Discovery and HBO content including Game of Thrones and the upcoming Harry Potter reboot, will be available exclusively on JioCinema beginning next month.

JioCinema appears to be targeting market leader Disney+ Hotstar by picking up the properties that were instrumental in driving the latter's growth in India in order to become a major player in the country's highly competitive video streaming market.

• Viacom18 previously outbid Disney to secure five-year IPL streaming rights and is currently streaming the cricket tournament for free to consumers

• Earlier this month, Jio Studios unveiled a slate of over 100 original films and TV series to be released on JioCinema over the next 18-24 months

While JioCinema is currently free, these content deals will likely play a key role in the service's strategy to attract subscribers when it starts charging for content. This approach is similar to what Disney did in 2016 when it introduced paid subscriptions. Notably, Uday Shankar, the former chairman of Disney India, is now a board member of Viacom18.

RIL group entities recently invested Rs 10,839 crore to increase their combined stake in Viacom18 to 74%. This includes TV18's 13.5% stake.

• Meanwhile, Shankar and James Murdoch's Bodhi Tree Systems own a 13.08% stake in Viacom18 for its Rs 4,306 crore investment. All these stakes are on a fully diluted basis

These moves could deal a huge blow to Disney's streaming ambitions in India. Disney+ Hotstar lost 3.8 million paid subscribers in the December-ended quarter, clocking its biggest-ever quarterly subscriber decline. Analysts predict more exodus could be in store in the forthcoming quarters.

Disclaimer: Moneycontrol is a part of the Network18 group. Network18 is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.

After nearly a decade of delivering subpar results, Oyo appears to have nursed its finances back to health. This comes as the hospitality and travel-tech startup inches closer towards a public listing.

The Ritesh Agarwal-led company reported its first-ever positive free cash flow quarter. Oyo likely ended Q4FY23 with nearly Rs 90 crore in surplus cash flow, according to a presentation shown to employees and accessed by us.

• This comes after Oyo recorded an adjusted EBITDA of Rs 63 crore in H1FY23 and Rs 185 crore in H2FY23
  

The current fiscal year appears to be even more promising for Oyo. As per one of the slides in the company's presentation, adjusted EBITDA will increase to Rs 800 crore in FY24, up from Rs 245 crore last year.

• The improvement was primarily due to increased bookings across geographies and other operational efficiencies at the company, which included layoffs

Positive adjusted EBITDA numbers would mean that Oyo can now rely less on external capital to finance its expansion plans and can fund its business on its own. Additionally, with around Rs 2,700 crore (cash on its balance sheet), Oyo will have a substantial war chest as it progresses towards an IPO.

Find out more

Humans first ventured into the sea hundreds of years ago; a few decades ago, mankind took its first steps on the Moon; and now, we have our sights set on the stars. 

As we look further into space, startups are realising that there is an opportunity to cash in on a "galactic-scale gold rush." 

With this in mind, IIT Bombay professor Arindrajit Chowdhury and his startup InspeCity have begun work on a lofty, long-term dream of creating 'space cities' in orbit between the Earth and the Moon.

• To launch their one-year-old startup, Chowdhury is devising plans to construct platforms that will assist in the servicing and maintenance of satellites. (Their website says that they want to become the greatest “Space Mechanics”)

• The startup then plans to build space factories, followed by a city

Go deeper

On April 27, 1981, Xerox released the Xerox 8010 Star Information System, which was the first commercial system to use a computer mouse. 

Although the system was designed for businesses, it was not a commercial success. The mouse gained popularity with the Apple Lisa and the Apple Macintosh, which brought it to the mainstream.

• Andreessen Horowitz's (a16z) former Chief Technology Officer, Riyaz Faizullabhoy, and former Chief Information Security Officer, Nassim Eddequiouaq, have teamed up to launch a cryptocurrency custody firm.
  
  
• The Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong is set to publish guidelines for its licensing system for cryptocurrency exchanges in May.

Get ready to question everything you thought you knew, as Black Mirror returns for a sixth season on Netflix this June. 

The newly released teaser trailer is giving us goosebumps, and while it doesn't reveal much about each episode's plot, we do get a glimpse of some of the season's stars. This includes Aaron Paul from Breaking Bad, Danny Ramirez from Top Gun: Maverick, and Salma Hayek. 

Watch the trailer 

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