Industry Updates : IT Sector

11 Jun 2011: Ness Technologies to be acquired by affiliate of CVCI

Ness Technologies, Inc., a global provider of information technology solutions and services, announced its merger agreement with an affiliate of Citi Venture Capital International, a global private equity investment fund. It said the affiliate of CVCI will acquire it in a deal valued at around USD 307 million.

11 Jun 2011:  Mahindras to sue B Ramalinga Raju and former independent Satyam Directors over fee refund

Even as the Mahindras are planning to drag disgraced Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju to court to claim damages, they are also learnt to be seriously considering suing the scam-hit company's erstwhile independent directors to recover the remuneration paid to them.

With the former independent directors of Satyam failing to heed the company's communications seeking a refund of the fee paid to them, a legal action is now becoming inevitable.

9 Jun 2011: Mahindra Satyam opens smart grid customer demo centre

Mahindra Satyam, a city-based consulting and IT services firm on Thursday said it has opened a smart grid customer demonstration centre at its 120-acre premises here.

The CDC will help customers understand the next generation technology in real time and evolutes various technologies underlying the smart grid technologies.

 9 Jun 2011: QuEST, Cades outbid Infy, Mahindra Satyam to clinch contract from Airbus

Niche tech firms, QuEST and Cades, outbid bigger Indian rivals, including Infosys , to win an outsourcing contract from Airbus — the world's biggest commercial plane maker signaling a trend of large outsourcing customers preferring to work with specialist vendors for complex , engineering projects. 

9 Jun 2011: Infosys acquires New Zealand's Gen-i's software solutions business

Infosys said that its Australia and New Zealand unit has acquired the software solutions business of New Zealand's Gen-i for an undisclosed sum. Infosys said it will take over 110 employees and contractors from Gen-i, which would raise its New Zealand staff strength to up to 150 people. It also plans to add 15-30 new hires immediately.

Gen-i is the corporate information communication technology (ICT) arm of Telecom New Zealand .

8 Jun 2011: IBM to increase its presence in 25 more cities by 2013

As part of its expansion plan, particularly in smaller cities in India, software major IBM aims to increase its presence in 25 more cities, besides the existing 22, by 2013.  The expansion is part of the company's strategy to establish its presence in growth markets, which are at present spreading to smaller cities, Nipun Mehrotra, Vice-President, General Business, Routes and Geographic Expansion, IBM India, South Asia said.

 8 Jun 2011: Security software market grew 12% in 2010 to $16.5 billion: Gartner

Worldwide security software revenue witnessed a growth of 12 per cent in 2010 to $16.5 billion, driven by a rebound in demand for such solutions, according to research firm Gartner.

While mature areas like endpoint security and web access management showed single-digit growth, security information and event management (SIEM) and secure web gateway products experienced double-digit growth, Gartner said.

 8 Jun 2011: Domestic cloud computing estimated to grow at 53%

The domestic cloud computing industry is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 53% to be a Rs 2,434 crore market by 2014, a study conducted by CyberMedia Research India said.

"Cloud computing is witnessing widespread interest from the vendor-service provider-channel community on the one hand and business leaders and CIOs on the other," CyberMedia Research India Software and IT Services Research Lead Analyst Kamal Vohra said.

This is fuelled by the strong belief that cloud computing will allow a large number of SMB enterprises to adopt the same enterprise class software and technology solutions, it added. As per the study, penetration in cloud computing is expected to grow by 6.8% in 2012 from 4% in 2010. 

 7 Jun 2011: Wipro creates technology executive & business councils to drive growth

IT major Wipro has formed a technology executive council (TEC) and a technology business council (TBC) to gear up for future waves of growth.

Like many of its peers, Wipro is now looking to move away from a pure services driven business model to one that involves developing platforms and products, including developing IP ( Intellectual property ).

The company's newly appointed CTO, Anurag Srivastava, said that the focus of the company is now to differentiate from its peers through unique offerings.

 6 Jun 2011: IBM bags IT contract worth Rs 298 cr from IIFL

 IBM will change IT infrastructure for financial services provider India Infoline, or IIFL, as a strategic partner over a contracted period of 10 years. The Rs 298-crore outsourcing contract will reduce operational and capital expenditure and create higher uptime for the company's broking platform.

Under the agreement, IBM will manage more than 700 IIFL branches, 450 servers spread across five data centers and nine local server rooms with over 15,000 end user assets spread across India.

 6 Jun 2011: Infosys to provide banking software to HBTF

 Infosys Technologies  said it has partnered with Jordan-based The Housing Bank for Trade and Finance (HBTF) to provide core banking solution to power the bank's customer care agenda.

The IT solution would empower the bank's 112 home country branches with a unified, future-proof technology platform delivering all the benefits of support for multi-currency transactions.

 3 Jun 2011: NIIT to acquire soft skill training company Evolv

 IT training company NIIT said that the company's Board of Directors has given the nod to acquire the balance 40 per cent stake in Noida-based English language and soft skill training company Evolv.  NIIT spokesperson Prateek Chatterjee said that NIIT is transitioning from an IT training company to a talent development company. Hence, the deal strategically fits the company future road map.

1 Jun 2011: IBM India's revenues cross $3 billion; contracts with Bharti Airtel & Indian Railways now worth $1.5 billion

IBM India's revenues crossed $3 billion (Rs 13,500 crore) in the year ended March, helped by contracts from a number of companies looking to improve their performance through better use of technology. Big Blue, a name IBM acquired from its blue-painted mainframe computers of the 60s, now controls over half of the outsourcing business in a market that is home to the world's fastest-growing tech firms.

Nearly half of this is from India's domestic market, where IBM handles computer hardware, software and services functions of customers such as Bharti Airtel. Some revenues also come from developing solutions for government customers such as Indian Railways, which took the company's help for developing a crew management system last year.