<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/49229421.cms" />Shares of <keyword id="147538" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Educomp-Solutions">Educomp Solutions</keyword> spiked 20% intraday on Monday after its subsidiary sold entire stake in Singapore-based company, although the amount was not disclosed. 
 
According to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Educomp+Solutions">Educomp Solutions</a>, it has sold entire stake in Wiz Learn Technology to <keyword id="3086507" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="V-cube-Global-Services">V-cube Global Services</keyword> and the proceeds of the acquisition will be used to repay existing debt to <keyword id="6355975" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Axis-Bank">Axis Bank</keyword>. 
 
V-cube Global Services is a subsidiary of V-cube <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Japan+">Japan</a> Group and holding company of APAC region. 
 
The company said in its <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Bombay+Stock+Exchange+">Bombay Stock Exchange</a> (<keyword id="35140" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="BSE">BSE</keyword>) filing: "Educomp Intelliprop Ventures Pte Ltd, subsidiary of Educomp Solutions Ltd, has sold its entire stake in Wiz Learn Technology Pte Ltd, Singapore to V-cube Global Services Pte Ltd." 
 
"Further, corresponding to such sale the investment of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Wiz+Learn+Technology+">Wiz Learn Technology</a> Pte Ltd in three subsidiaries naming Singapore Learning.com Pte Ltd, Pave Education Pte Ltd and Wiz Learn Pte Ltd will also get sold," the company added. 
 
In 2007, Educomp Solutions has invested in Wiz Learn Technology Pte Ltd. 
 
While the company did not elaborate on the deal size or the percentage stake sold, it said "the present sale will yield a return of 57% on our original investment". 
 
(Image: Indiatimes)

Educomp sells entire stake in Wiz Learn Technology to repay its debt

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/48447787.cms" /> The Bank <keyword id="6354813" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="nifty">Nifty</keyword> led major indices lower on Wednesday as traders turned bearish on equities after a sharp global sell-off following China's surprise devaluation of its currency. Banks, Tyre stocks and metal companies were the worst hit. 
 
The Nifty fell 44 points to 8,418 in early deals, dangerously close to its 200-day moving average. The Advance-Decline Ratio was at 10/40 with Hindalco, NMDC, Coal India, Bharti Airtel and Tata Motors taking the first five slots on the losers' list. Tata Steel and Sun Pharma, post their earnings, Tech Mahindra, TCS and Infosys were the top gainers on the Index, where Yes Bank was the most actively traded counter. 
 
Major indices were bathed in red. The CNX 100, CNX 200 and CNX 500 Indexes lost between 0.5-0.6 percent. The Bank Nifty fell 136 points, or 0.7 percent, to 18,481 on dismal numbers posted by SBI. CNX Metals, CNX PSU Bank and CNX Auto Indexes were the top losers in the sectoral space on the National Stock Exchange. The CNX IT index was the lone sectoral gainer as it a reverse play on the weakness of the Rupee. 
 And on the Bombay Stock Exchange, the <keyword id="6484188" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sensex">Sensex</keyword> fell 127 points to 27,738 points in initial trades on Wednesday. As a consequence, the Advance-Decline Ratio stood at 10/20. M&amp;M, BHEL and ICICI Bank were major losers compared with Tata Steel, Wipro and Lupin that gained ground. 
 
The Futures and Options market was also on the backfoot with Hindustan Petroleum, Indian Oil, Hindalco and Coal India leading the list of losers versus Sun Pharma, Divi's Labs, Reliance Power and Tech Mahindra that made it to the list of gainers. The Advance-Decline Ratio, meanwhile, stood at 41/120. 
 
The broader market, too, was dominated by the bears in the first half hour of trade with 583 shares rising compared with 933 that fell. 
 
Ajanta Pharma, NIIT Technologies and Chennai Petro struck fresh highs in the first 20 minutes of trade and Jubilant Life Sciences, Mukta Arts and Educomp solutions made it to the volume buzzers list on the NSE. 
 
GAIL, Hindalco and Hind Zinc figured on the list of stocks hitting lowest in 52 weeks. 
 
Image credit: Indiatimes

Here's how the Markets opened today

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/25305892.cms" /> If you are sceptic about run-of-the-mill online courses or can’t decode the learning materials on your own, it’s time to go for the best of both worlds. How about <keyword id="1928389" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="WizIQ">WizIQ</keyword>, a <keyword id="406113" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Virtual-classroom">virtual classroom</keyword> that can be accessed from anywhere, from any device, while teachers handhold students just like they do in a physical institution? But there’s more to it. Even premier institutions such as IIT-Delhi, Vellore Institute of Technology and <keyword id="59489" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Indian-School-of-Mines">Indian School of Mines</keyword> (Dhanbad) are tying up with this Mohali-headquartered firm for certificate courses and distance learning programmes. Overseas organisations using the solution include <keyword id="1928396" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Atlantic-University-in-Virginia-Beach">Atlantic University in Virginia Beach</keyword> and Des Moines Area Community Colleges in Iowa, among others. The SaaS-based (<keyword id="753967" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="software-as-a-service">Software-as-a-Service</keyword>) education platform is hosted on the Cloud and successfully operates a marketplace where teachers can sell their courses to its 3-million-strong student community. 
 WizIQ offers a collaborative and flexible platform for delivering and enhancing any online course – be it high school maths, hybrid courses for university students or employee training programmes. What sets it apart from other <keyword id="1928409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="edu-tech">edu-tech</keyword> companies is its focus on teacher-and-learner-centred methods instead of just providing gigabytes and gigabytes of content. It is also an excellent interface for conducting <keyword id="1071995" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Massive-Open-Online-Courses">Massive Open Online Courses</keyword> (<keyword id="1539483" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="MOOCs">MOOCs</keyword>). Best of all, WizIQ’s Virtual Classroom software works cross-platform – on PCs, <keyword id="75489" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="IOS">iOS</keyword> and <keyword id="6355645" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="android">Android</keyword> devices. It can also be integrated with <keyword id="1928395" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="learning-management-systems">learning management systems</keyword> like Moodle or Blackboard or with an organisation’s own website. 
 True to its global stature, the platform has a multilingual interface and supports 19 languages. The company also opened an office in Bangalore yesterday in a bid to expand further. WizIQ has other offices in Hyderabad and North Carolina as well. Here is a snapshot that captures the vision and viability of the <keyword id="13178" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Mohali">Mohali</keyword> start-up gone global. 
 
Who runs WizIQ: The venture was started by <keyword id="222685" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Harman-Singh">Harman Singh</keyword> (CEO) in 2007. The parent company is <keyword id="1696366" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Authorgen-Technologies">authorGEN Technologies</keyword>, which was founded in 2002 by Harman and late Harbir Khurana. Harman holds a master’s degree in Computer Science from <keyword id="283601" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="North-Carolina-State-University">North Carolina State University</keyword>. Prior to WizIQ, he had also founded authorSTREAM, an online PowerPoint sharing platform. 
 
What inspired the venture: The concept of making quality education accessible to all at reasonable charges. Harman came up with the idea during his graduation years and the goal was to make teaching and learning easier for everyone. 
 
What’s the pitch: Do more than stand and deliver – engage your students. Content might be the king but at WizIQ, teachers are back where they belong and replicates the classroom experience online. That creates a distinctive style and ensures a great engagement model. 
 
How it works: WizIQ enables teachers and trainers to hold ‘live’ classes and share tutorials in all possible formats – PowerPoint presentation, PDF, Word document, virtual whiteboards, voice and video. Learners only need an Internet connection to ‘attend’ those classes and don’t require to download anything or pre-install cumbersome client software. An integrated chat is there as well to make each session interactive. 
 
Technology: The platform leverages Microsoft technologies. For real-time communication between students and teachers, it uses Flash Media Server (FMS) and Flex at front-end. Amazon S3 is used for data storage and wherever heavy computation power is needed, Amazon EC2 service is used. To optimise the ‘live class’ experience, servers are placed at multiple locations like the US, Singapore, Sao Paulo and Ireland. 
 
Claim to fame: Traction and awards. WizIQ claims that over 250,000 teachers and 3 million learners are using the platform across 100-plus countries. The company also says it has the largest collection of paid courses created by educators on the Internet and hosts more than 2,500 live classes daily via WizIQ Virtual Classroom. Teachers and organisations are also using WizIQ to conduct successful MOOCs. 
 
Show me the money: It is essentially a paid platform for teachers looking to conduct online classes. Fee starts at $19 per month (or $190 a year) and can go up to $69 per month (or $690 annually). WizIQ offers a freemium model and some features on this platform are free. For instance, teachers can hold 2 classes per month free of cost and there’s a 30-day free trial for those who want to try out its advanced features. Around 8,000 of the total 250,000 teachers are paid members, the company claims. 
 Unlike many other start-ups, this one has been well funded all along. Educomp, India’s largest <keyword id="255607" type="TECHNOLOGY" weightage="100" keywordseo="education-technology">education technology</keyword> company, invested an undisclosed amount in the very first year. In January 2013, WizIQ also raised a Series B round of $4 million from education-focused PE firm <keyword id="342246" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Kaizen">Kaizen</keyword> and German media major Bertelsmann. 
 
Biggest challenge: Poor Internet penetration and stiff competition from those in the same space. But the toughest one is positioning. Web-enabled distance learning is definitely looking up in India, but it is yet to catch up with mainstream courses administered offline. Until that happens, scaling up will remain a major problem.

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Educomp sells entire stake in Wiz Learn Technology to repay its debt

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