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The Italian government is having growing doubts about closing a €1.5 billion ($1.6 billion) deal with Elon Musk’s Starlink in light of the US pullback from commitments to European security, people familiar with the matter said.

Possible alternatives to Starlink for secure satellite-based communications to the government include Eutelsat Communications SA, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are confidential. Musk, a close ally of US President Donald Trump, is also seen as an unreliable partner by some in Meloni’s administration, they said.

A spokesperson for the Italian government declined to comment. SpaceX, which owns Starlink, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Eutelsat regularly engages with European governments and institutions on secure satellite communications,” a Eutelsat spokesperson said, adding that the company doesn’t comment on ongoing discussions with specific governments.

The issue came up at a meeting with ministers Tuesday, when Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said changing geopolitics required looking for viable SpaceX alternatives, according to the people familiar. President Sergio Mattarella is among those who strongly support considering different options, they said.

Reuters reported earlier that Eutelsat was among the companies in talks with the Italian government to provide secure communications.

In January, Bloomberg News reported that Italy was in advanced talks with SpaceX for a deal to provide communications services for the Italian military and direct-to-cell satellite service during emergencies, which was later confirmed by Meloni’s office. However, Trump’s decisions this week to halt military assistance to Ukraine and restrict intelligence sharing with Kyiv have highlighted the fast-changing relationship between the US and the European Union.

Starlink has become an essential service for the Ukrainian military in its three-year war with Russia after much of the country’s communications infrastructure has been knocked out. Strained ties between Washington and Kyiv after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s White House visit on Friday descended into a shouting match with Trump and Vice President JD Vance have raised fears that the service could be disrupted.

Meloni and her entourage have privately been staggered by the magnitude of attacks on long-established tenets of foreign affairs by Trump and his new administration, Bloomberg reported in February, citing people with knowledge of their thinking.

Trump has challenged other traditional US allies as he seeks an economic and diplomatic reset of America’s place in the world, including sparking a tariff war with Canada and Mexico.

Meloni has been positioning herself as a bridge between Europe and the US administration and has a long-standing rapport with Musk. She attended Trump’s inauguration in January and recently headlined an annual gathering of conservatives that Trump and Musk attended.

Shares in France’s Eutelsat, which operates the second-biggest portfolio of low-earth orbit satellites after Starlink, have soared this week to the highest since 2022 as EU politicians pledged to boost defense spending. They rose a record 120% to €7.85. Bloomberg

President Donald Trump made no bones about his distaste for the US Chips Act during his congressional address Tuesday night — raising questions in the semiconductor industry about the future of the program and the role some U.S. companies will play going forward.

Trump also touted a recent agreement with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. in which the world’s largest chip-manufacturing company promised to invest $100 billion into building more factories in the U.S., in addition to $65 billion already planned. The latest agreement was not through any funding from the Chips Act, which funded $6.6 billion toward TSMC’s Arizona plants last November.

Trump’s latest stance made it seem likely to investors that he is no longer trying to parlay any kind of deal for Intel Corp. INTC-2.44% as Wall Street had speculated in the last month, which led to a big jump in its stock.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Intel Interim Chairman Frank Yeary held talks with Trump administration officials last month, expressing concerns about Intel’s future. Per the report, TSMC had studied controlling all or parts of Intel’s chip-making plants, potentially under a consortium, as part of a move that would break Intel in two. Some analysts have also speculated that the Trump administration has been working to get more U.S. chip companies to use Intel’s manufacturing facilities, in addition or as an alternative to TSMC’s.

Shares of Intel fell 2.4% on Wednesday.

“I think Intel has been left at the side of the road,” said Robert Maire, president of Semiconductor Advisors.

Maire and many other analysts have not been in favor of any sort of partnership between Intel and its fiercest rival TSMC, saying it never would worked. And in recent weeks, there have been positive reports that Intel’s much-anticipated next-generation manufacturing process, called 18a, is yielding good results.

“I don’t know why we are having these conversations — they keep telling us 18a is fine,” said Bernstein Research analyst Stacy Rasgon. “They keep telling us 18a is on track. I don’t think they are desperate for cash.”

Rasgon also said he expects Intel’s next chip line — code-named Panther Lake, and the first product to go in production on 18a — to launch at year-end. High-volume production is expected in 2026.

The Chips Act was created by Congress to encourage the semiconductor industry to build more plants in the U.S., and it would take an act of Congress to actually kill the Chips Act. That said, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency has already laid off about a third of the staff in the Commerce Department that was associated with administering funds.

“I do not think the president will find much support in Congress for undermining these chips investments and the massive amount of jobs they are creating,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in a statement.

One possibility, Maire said, is that the projects that were promised funding in the last few months of the Biden administration will not get funded. “The new money promised, those deals promised at the end of the Biden administration, I think those are all toast,” he said. “[Trump] is going to undo all that.”

In addition to TSMC’s award of $6.6 billion in the last two months of 2024, other big award recipients from the Chips Act included Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. which was awarded $4.75 billion for its plans to invest $37 billion in central Texas for two fabs and an R&D facility. Texas Instruments Inc. won $1.61 billion in direct funding, as part of its plans to spend $18 billion through the end of the decade on three plants — two in Texas and one in Utah. Micron Technology Inc. was awarded an additional $6.4 billion toward its plan to spend $100 billion on two high-volume manufacturing plants in Clay, N.Y., and $25 billion in Idaho.

“Most of the capex was coming from the companies anyway,” said Rasgon. “It was meaningful but it was not material.” He added that the tax credits were probably the more meaningful element of all the deals forged.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said during his confirmation hearings that he wants to review the awards finalized under President Biden. Trump said in his comments Wednesday night that whatever is left over from the Chips Act should be used to reduce the U.S. debt.

Raymond James’s Washington policy analysts said in a note to clients that they believed the Chips Act is unlikely to be repealed and the 25% tax credit for capital expenditures is likely to remain. They echoed Maire’s concerns about existing contracts that have not yet been funded.

“Aadditional grants will become increasingly unlikely,” the analysts wrote. “A bigger debate will be on changes to existing Chips Act rewards. There is an argument that could be made that Trump’s criticism could be used as an excuse to rework existing contracts, but also comes with concern that these changes could usher in new uncertainty for existing awards.” MarketWatch

Implementation delays are a significant barrier in large enterprises adopting Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions for their various business tasks, a new study by IDC commissioned by Zoho, reveals.

The study titled, ‘IDC State of SaaS Adoption in India Survey 2024’, notes that 75 per cent of Indian enterprises that have adopted SaaS solutions since 2020 have encountered implementation delays, resulting in an average timeline overrun of 57 per cent and cost overrun of 43 per cent. These setbacks have also led to an average loss of ₹5.6 crore in missed business opportunities. Additionally, it has impacted employee productivity, customer experience, and competitive positioning.

“The ability to deploy SaaS solutions efficiently is no longer just an IT priority—it is a business necessity,” said Sharath Srinivasamurthy, Associate Vice President, IDC India, said presenting the insights. “Enterprises need a strategic approach—one that integrates automation, contextual intelligence, and development tools—to accelerate implementation and unlock SaaS value faster,” he added.

According to the study, financial and accounting (F&A) solutions had the highest cost overrun (60%). F&A solutions were adopted by 66% of the respondents.

Across industries, customer experience solutions were the most implemented post-pandemic (87 per cent), averaging 51 per cent timeline overrun. However, email and collaboration solutions saw the highest time overrun at 68%, followed by legal solutions at 61 per cent.

The primary causes of implementation delays include project management inefficiencies (47%), unexpected integration or security challenges (38%), talent shortages (38%), and technical complexities in the new solution (38%).

Speaking at the event, Zoho CEO Mani Vembu said that the SaaS firm’s platform-first approach eliminates implementation bottlenecks. “By offering deeply integrated applications, low-code extensibility, and AI-powered automation, we can help businesses to deploy solutions and go live faster, reduce implementation risks, and accelerate their digital transformation efforts,” he said. The Hindu BusinessLine

Competition Commission has rejected a complaint of alleged unfair business practices filed against Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti and RailTel Corporation in relation to the Prime Minister Schools for Rising India (PM-SHRI) scheme.

It was alleged that the two entities indulged in anti-competitive practices regarding a project for integrated infrastructure and IT solutions under the scheme.

In an eight-page order, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) said there is no prima facie case of contravention of either Section 3 or Section 4 of the Competition Act and dismissed the complaint against the two entities.

Section 3 and 4 pertain to anti-competitive agreements and abuse of dominant position, respectively.

The Samithi runs Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas while RailTel is a state-owned telecom infrastructure provider.

“The Commission in its various orders have opined that the procurer, which can also be considered a consumer of a tendering process, is at liberty to set its terms and conditions for procurement, based on its requirements. Every consumer/procurer must have freedom to exercise their choice freely in the procurement of goods and services,” CCI said in the order dated March 3.

According to the regulator, such a choice is sacrosanct in a market economy as the consumers are in the best position to evaluate what meets their requirements and provides them competitive advantage in provision of their services.

While exercising such choice, they may stipulate standards for procurement which meet their requirement and the same as such ipso facto cannot be held as anti-competitive, it added. PTI

JioStar will lay off more than 1,100 employees as the newly formed joint venture between Reliance Industries Ltd’s Viacom18 and The Walt Disney Co.’s India unit cuts overlapping roles following the merger, said multiple people aware of the development.

“The departures started a month ago, and they are not ending anytime soon,” said one of the people quoted above. The layoffs will continue till June, the people said.

The job cuts are primarily affecting corporate roles in distribution, finance, commercial, and legal departments, nearly a dozen people who spoke with Mint confirmed, speaking on the condition of anonymity. They said the layoffs include entry-level employees, senior managers, senior directors and even those at the assistant vice-president level.

“So far, sports has remained untouched because the Champions Trophy, Women’s Premier League (WPL), and Indian Premier League (IPL) are scheduled back-to-back,” said these people. Several regional entertainment channels, including Colors Kannada and Colors Bangla, have seen significant workforce reductions, they said.

Industry executives indicate that Disney Star already has a strong presence in key regional markets, which may lead to future rationalization at Viacom18’s regional channels. However, JioStar is gearing also up to expand its sports portfolio, with new channels expected to be launched.

A JioStar spokesperson declined to comment on the layoffs.

Why the layoffs
With Viacom18 and Disney’s Star India merger creating India’s largest media company, JioStar is consolidating businesses to improve efficiencies and focus on high-growth verticals, particularly sports and digital streaming.

“Whenever two large companies with similar businesses merge, redundancies are inevitable,” said an industry executive tracking the developments. “This restructuring is about optimizing resources and reducing duplication, ensuring the JV operates as a leaner and more efficient entity.”

A rival company’s chief executive officer said he was receiving CVs from JioStar employees with over ₹1 crore annual packages who are ready to move.

‘Generous severance’
JioStar is offering a “generous severance” package to the affected employees, said the people quoted earlier. The payout structure ensures six to 12 months of salary, depending on the years served.

The affected employees are getting one month’s full salary for every year completed at the company, in addition to the notice period, which ranges from one to three months.

For instance, someone who has served less than six years will still receive a minimum of seven months of full pay and benefits, including the notice period, while those with longer tenures could get up to 15 months of compensation.

Even employees who have not completed the mandatory five-year tenure for gratuity eligibility will receive a pro-rata payout.

A few affected employees, particularly from tech and digital services, may be offered roles within Jio or the broader Reliance ecosystem, according to one of the people quoted earlier.

Taking on Netflix, Amazon Prime
JioStar, valued at ₹70,352 crore (post-money basis), aims to take on streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, while strengthening its traditional television portfolio.

Reliance Industries, through Viacom18 and direct ownership, controls a majority stake in the company, while Disney holds 36.84%. Nita M. Ambani has been appointed chairperson of the new entity, with Uday Shankar serving as vice-chairperson.

JioStar’s portfolio spans entertainment and sports assets, including TV channels such as Colors, Star Plus, Star Gold, and Star Sports, as well as the now-merged digital streaming platform JioHotstar, which aims to reach over a billion viewers across India. LiveMint

A parliamentary committee has sought a factual note from the Ministry of Communications on reports that its department of telecommunications allowed the surrender of spectrum acquired in auctions by telecom companies before 2022, sources said.

In its communication to the ministry, the committee headed by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey has mentioned a critical observation in the CAG report of 2015 related to the Communications and IT sector over the “lack of due diligence in auction of spectrum for Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) services”, they said.

The CAG had observed that the Notice Inviting Applications for the BWA auction suffered from deficiencies in scope of usage of spectrum for different class of licencees.

The committee said the audit watchdog had noted that the UAS/CMTS (Unified Access Services/Cable Modem Termination System) and ISP (Internet Service Provider) operators were allowed to bid for the same BWA spectrum while the usage of spectrum was governed by their respective licences.

The CAG said, “This led to post-auction demand by M/s Infotel for network codes which would have enabled them to provide voice services beyond the scope of their ISP licence. DoT facilitated the request by permitting them to migrate to Unified Licence after the auction.”

It added, “This migration, allowed at prices discovered in 2001, resulted in undue advantage of 3,367.29 crore to M/s Reliance Jio Infocomm (formerly M/s Infotel). It was also seen that even after four years of auction the roll out of BWA services has been negligible.”

Citing the CAG observations and some recent reports claiming that the department of telecommunications allowed the surrender of spectrum acquired in auctions by telecom companies before 2022, the panel has sought a factual note from the ministry. PTI