Side Notes by Zerodha Varsity

Big Bazaar was India's largest retail chain, sitting on a mountain of debt. Covid dealt a major blow to its operations. Reliance Industries stepped in to help, but Amazon obstructed the transaction due to an old deal it had struck with the Future Group.

It was one of the most sensational corporate battles, but did anyone win?

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Disclaimer: The stocks or financial instruments discussed in this podcast are meant for educational purposes only. Please do not consider them recommendations or financial advice of any form.

How could Starbucks improve over CCD's offering? How could Ola and Uber improve over Hertz and Wings Radio cabs? Newcomers or challenger brands bettered the offerings of pioneers in their fields and made them bigger than the pioneers. But there have been instances of pioneers nearly monopolising their categories. For example, WhatsApp has only grown its market share with a moat difficult to break.

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Disclaimer: The stocks or financial instruments discussed in this podcast are meant for educational purposes only. Please do not consider them recommendations or financial advice of any form.

Know the history and customs behind Muhurat trading, and why the Muhurat trading of 2025 is different.

Zerodha Varsity on Social Media:

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Disclaimer: The stocks or financial instruments discussed in this podcast are meant for educational purposes only. Please do not consider them recommendations or financial advice of any form.

It is interesting how a tyre company became an authority on rating restaurants worldwide. The connection feels unusual, but once you know the story, it seems almost obvious. 

Did you know that many restaurants may not get a Michelin Star, but a consolation prize of sorts? It is a cute tag, to say the least.

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Disclaimer: The stocks or financial instruments discussed in this podcast are meant for educational purposes only. Please do not consider them recommendations or financial advice of any form.

Two companies, Concept2 and Centr, have long-standing agreements to supply equipment for Hyrox training and events worldwide. As Hyrox slowly becomes a cultural phenomenon, its suppliers stand to gain from the growing demand. There have been many similar parallels where cultural and subcultural trends have spurred demands for unlikely businesses.

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Disclaimer: The stocks or financial instruments discussed in this podcast are meant for educational purposes only. Please do not consider them recommendations or financial advice of any form.

KFC x Crocs, Nike x Ben&Jerry's, Supreme x Oreo, and Comet x Naru are all weird brand collaborations. There are so many more. But are such collabs just marketing stunts or actual business drivers?

Zerodha Varsity on Social Media:

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Disclaimer: The stocks or financial instruments discussed in this podcast are meant for educational purposes only. Please do not consider them recommendations or financial advice of any form.

Bhushan Steel was among India's largest secondary steelmakers. It rode high on India's infrastructure boom, expanding operations fueled by massive debt. Its growth came to a screeching halt when the promoters and senior officials were accused of multi-thousand-crore accounting fraud involving shell companies, fake invoices, fund diversion, and round-tripping.

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Disclaimer: The stocks or financial instruments discussed in this podcast are meant for educational purposes only. Please do not consider them recommendations or financial advice of any form.

Within just 6-7 months in 2020, Reliance had raised over 20 billion dollars from 13 prominent investors and sold about 33% of its equity Jio Platforms. This was the largest private capital raise by any company in India’s history. Why did such a cash-rich company like Reliance need external capital?

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Disclaimer: The stocks or financial instruments discussed in this podcast are meant for educational purposes only. Please do not consider them recommendations or financial advice of any form.

Aswath Damodaran called Walmart's acquisition of Flipkart the most expensive facelift in history. He felt Walmart wanted to feel young again by acquiring a modern-age e-commerce company in a developing market. But Walmart is seeing a value that others may seem to ignore.

Zerodha Varsity on Social Media:

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Disclaimer: The stocks or financial instruments discussed in this podcast are meant for educational purposes only. Please do not consider them recommendations or financial advice of any form.

L&T wanted to diversify out of infrastructure-related businesses. It was looking for targets. Mindtree was not looking for buyers, but it came on L&T's radar because of VG Sidhartha's struggles at Cafe Coffee Day. Then came a hostile takeover.

Zerodha Varsity on Social Media:

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Disclaimer: The stocks or financial instruments discussed in this podcast are meant for educational purposes only. Please do not consider them recommendations or financial advice of any form.