A hitch

TATTLE

The negotiations between India's largest print media company, Bennett, Coleman & Co, and the New York-headquartered Dow Jones, on The Wall Street Journal's India foray seem to have arrived at a critical phase.

Though Bennett, Coleman had announced its tie up with Dow Jones to print and publish "The Wall Street Journal" in India, it now appears that the two media companies are still negotiating a non-compete clause.

Apparently, the US media company has included a clause that restricts The Times group from entering into similar arrangements with any other financial paper. The latter, it is learnt, is still mulling over the point.

Consequently, a final deal between the two is yet to be inked. Dow Jones' representative in India, however, told Ice World that the deal was still on and was just going through the various stages of negotiations.

Accounting snafu

This is a unique accounting problem "� so unique that the Nasdaq-listed Covansys has had to announce to the stock exchange that it is delaying the announcement of its first-quarter results earnings.

The company in question has a sizeable presence in India, with more than a couple of offshore development centres.

Covansys said early this month that it would delay announcing its first-quarter earnings and a regulatory filing, blaming confusion over how to classify certain non-cash charges. The company said it had not finished reviewing certain "fixed asset adjustments. "