Bad weather looms, but astronauts ready for liftoff

Despite bad weather, Atlantis is set for launch late morning for NASA's 135th and final shuttle mission.

Update at 8:11 a.m. ET: The four-person crew of Atlantis are aboard the shuttle, setting in for a late-morning liftoff if weather permits.

Update at 7:35 a.m. ET: The four astronauts are heading to the launch pad in preparation for the launch of Atlantis on NASA's 135th and final mission, despite bad weather that could still delay liftoff.

Original posting: Bad weather threatens to scrub the late morning launch today of Atlantis on NASA's 135th and final shuttle mission.

So far, the launch is on schedule for an 11:26 a.m. ET liftoff.

Ferocious thunderstorms drenched Cape Canaveral on Thursday and more storms are expected today, prompting NASA to warn there is a 70% chance that weather will force a delay.

"Weather is not looking good for launch," shuttle weather officer Kathy Winters said.

Nearly a million people are expected to watch Atlantis roar into space from

beaches along Florida's coast.

Amazon Free App of the Day: Fieldrunners HD

Today, in the Amazon Appstore, users can pick up the game Fieldrunners HD for free. I hate to say it, but Fieldrunners HD is just another Tower Defense game that isn’t Plants vs Zombies. Tower defense games are a time-honored tradition in gaming but one that has been done so many times that it’s hard to get excited over another one – even one with the solid visual aspects of Fieldrunners.

For what it’s worth, Fieldrunners has one several prestigious awards in mobile gaming so for a tower defense game, it’s definitely one of the best.

Choose from seven towers, each with its own special weaponry, and unleash a medley of destruction. You’ll start small, maybe with the Gatling Tower, and work your way up to the Mortar Tower, delivering ultimate destructive powers via the nuke.

With a bird’s-eye view of your field, strategically place your towers where you believe they’ll be most effective. Drag and drop them from the menu to your field. Replace a tower by tapping it and then selling it for cash.

Earn more points and more cash by preventing enemies from crossing the grassy field and infiltrating your base. Lose a life for each fieldrunner that penetrates your defenses.

All in all, it wouldn’t hurt to pick this one up today from Amazon as it is entirely free but if you’ve played a few tower defense games before, unfortunately this one doesn’t bring anything terribly exciting to the table aside from the attractive graphics.

Google+ For Businesses Coming Later This Year

Google+, the company's recently introduced set of social communication services, briefly opened to new participants last night, between about 7pm PDT and 9:40pm PDT. Google engineering director David Besbris, in a Google+ post, said that the Google+ field trial is going well and that Google is seeking to double the undisclosed size of the field trial.

Toward that end, Google provided participants with the ability to invite friends to the closed test of the service. A few hours later, the invitation icon was removed.

Google's business customers, specifically users of Google Apps, have to wait a bit longer to try Google+. The Google Profiles service, a required component of Google+, has not been compatible with Google Apps for several months. Google engineers are working to remedy the situation but there are significant hurdles to overcome, particularly while Google+ is still working through various privacy issues.

"Right now, we're very much focused on optimizing for the consumer experience," said Google product manager Christian Oestlien in a video update. "But we have a great team of engineers building a similarly optimized business experience for Google+."

AMEX launched a free dashboard to help customers manage social media.

Find out how this tool will help you suceed (even if you aren't an AMEX customer).

Oestlien said that Google hopes to make its social networking service available to businesses later this year. "It will include things like rich analytics, and the ability to connect [a Google+] identity to other parts of Google that businesses might use on a daily basis, like AdWords."

Oestlien asked businesses not to create consumer Profiles for Google+ in the interim.

Google will be admitting a small group of businesses into a Google+ pilot test to see how users interact with commercial brand Profiles through the various Google+ services, like Circles and Hangouts. Organizations interested in participating in the test should fill out this Web form, which Google has only publicized in a video shared among those already admitted to Google+.

Oestlien's request comes too late for some businesses, like Ford Motor Company, which has already embraced Google+. On Thursday, Ford hosted a live chat with Matt Van Dyke, director of marketing communications for the auto company, and encouraged Google+ users to visit a Hangout, a multi-person video chat room, after the presentation.

On Monday, Ford Europe launched what may have been the first attempt at social marketing on Google+, a contest to write the best caption for an image, with the winner determined by the number of +1 votes. The contest garnered more than 80 comments, from which a winner was chosen and awarded the Xbox 360 game Dirt 3.

Yet, Ford is still figuring out how businesses fit into Google's social landscape. In a post on Wednesday, the company said, "We're experimenting on Google+ and we've seen comments, both pro and con, about our presence. What would you like to see from us, in order to get the most value from interacting?"

That's a question a lot of businesses are asking both internally and externally, not just about Google+ but about Facebook and other social networks. Are businesses "friends" or something else?

L&T Finance raises Rs 330 cr via pre-IPO placement

Bangalore: Ahead of its public share sale, L&T Finance Holdings Ltd has raised Rs 330 crore from US private equity (PE) firm Capital International.

The company placed 60 million equity shares with the investment fund at Rs 55 each, its parent Larsen and Toubro Ltd (L&T) said in a statement to stock exchanges on Thursday.

L&T Finance is preparing to raise Rs 1,750 crore through an initial public offering (IPO), the company said in a regulatory filing in March.

“This pre-IPO round is our first step to reach up to the IPO process,” N. Sivaraman, president, L&T Finance, said by phone from Mumbai. “We have got regulatory approvals. There are a few last bits for which approvals are being sought. It’s a bit too early to say when the issue will happen.”

L&T Finance, 99.9% owned by parent L&T, plans to use proceeds from its IPO to repay Rs 345 crore to its parent, enhance its own capital base by infusing Rs 570 crore into the company, and invest Rs 535 crore in L&T Infrastructure Finance.

Investors seem to like finance companies. Deal sizes in the banking, financial services and insurance space are getting bigger. In the first six months of this year, investors have put $740 million (around Rs 3,285 crore today) in 20 deals in the banking and financial services space, compared with $657 million in 20 deals in the same period a year ago, according to data from Venture Intelligence, which tracks PE and venture capital activity.

“For financial services, on a long-term basis, investors continue to be very bullish due to the underlying demand,” K.P. Balaraj, managing director,WestBridge Capital, said in an earlier interview.

For investors, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) offer exposure to emerging economies as they can’t invest in banks due to regulatory controls. Under the Reserve Bank of India guidelines, no individual entity can take more than 5% stake in a bank without its approval.

“Similar to an investment in a bank, an investment in a(n) NBFC gives the investor an exposure to a wider economy by the very nature of its business, including retail, infrastructure and corporate,” said Avinash Gupta, leader, financial advisory, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Pvt. Ltd.

In another deal on Thursday, International Finance Corp., or IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, said it has invested Rs 12 crore in Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd’s proposed NBFC.

Earlier in May, Magma Fincorp Ltd, a non-deposit taking NBFC, received a Rs 440 crore investment in a deal led by PE firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co LP, along with IFC.

On Thursday, L&T shares gained about 3% to end at Rs 1,861.25 apiece on the Bombay Stock Exchange, on a day the benchmark Sensex climbed 1.88% to close at 19,078.30 points.

Citigroup Global Markets India Pvt. Ltd, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India) Pvt. Ltd and JM Financial Consultants Pvt. Ltd are the global coordinators and book runners to L&T Finance’s IPO.