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Industry Updates - IT Sector

21 Mar 2011: Capgemini leads race for Headstrong buyout, deal pegged at $500 mn

Capgemini, one of the world's largest IT services companies, is in advanced talks to buy a controlling stake in mid-sized IT services provider Headstrong from the founders of the company and private equity investor Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe.

IBM and Hewlett Packard-EDS have also submitted preliminary bids for a controlling stake. Capgemini's bid values Headstrong at close to $500 million and could make it a clear front-runner in the competitive bidding process.

20 Mar 2011: Wipro, Infosys, TCS recall staff from Bahrain over unrest

Many Indian IT companies have decided to evacuate their employees from Bahrain, rocked by protests for several weeks. There are around 350,000 Indians in Bahrain. Wipro, Infosys, TCS and other companies have a substantial presence in the country. 

17 Mar 2011: HCL Infosystems bags Rs 300 cr deal from Indian Air Force

HCL Infosystems said it has bagged an order from the Indian Air Force to deploy Wideband CDMA-based portable wireless network at a cost of over Rs 300 crore.

The WCDMA network will provide backbone connectivity and ensure video interactivity for video calls, cross connectivity with other communication platform like IP-based communication within the Air Force Network.

17 Mar 2011: HCL Tech to send team to Japan; employees can work from home  

HCL Technologies said it will send a senior level delegation to quake-hit Japan to support its employees, and the Indian software services firm will also give employees an option to work from alternate locations. Over 1000 HCL engineers work on Japanese projects, according to its website.

16 Mar 2011: Tech Mahindra inaugurates cloud competency lab in Pune

Tech Mahindra said that it has inaugurated a cloud competency lab at its Hinjewadi facility in Pune. Tech Mahindra's strategic intent is to be cloud advisor, enabler and manager in the cloud services eco-system, the company said. This will enable its clients to choose from best-of-breed technologies and integrate them to meet their business objective of growing revenue on cloud-based services. 

16 Mar 2011: 3i Infotech to sell US subsidiary Regulus for $100 mn

3i Infotech is all set to sell its US subsidiary, Regulus for $100 mn.  The deal is expected to be closed within the next 3 months. 3i Infotech has roped in UBS Securities to advise the sale of the US asset. 

3i Infotech had acquired Regulus, a transaction processing BPO 2 years ago for a consideration of $80 mn. The company is now looking at selling the subsidiary on concerns of growth slowdown as well as debt pressure on the balance sheet.

15 Mar 2011: TCS, Mahindra Satyam bag multi-million dollar deals

Tata Consultancy Services and Satyam have announced a large, multiyear, multimillion dollar deal. Tata Consultancy Services said it has bagged a IT infrastructure deal from Dutch technical consultancy firm Royal Haskoning. The scope of the project covers end-to-end IT infrastructure services, which will be provided from TCS' global delivery centres in the Netherlands, Hungary and India.

15 Mar 2011: Sequoia capital to mentor start-ups

In a move that underscores a renewed focus on early stage investing Sequoia Capital India is collaborating with online portal Pluggd.in to identify and mentor winners at a monthly contest for technology start-ups that begins this month. For the marquee investment firm, this marks a return to the early and growth capital investment mode favoured by its global parent. It comes weeks after the exit of the India-based founding team that quit, to set up a separate fund to invest in publicly listed enterprises.

 

In 2010, investors pumped in $ 446 million into early stage venture capital deals compared with $ 320 million in the previous year according to research firm Venture Intelligence. This year, a slew of investors and mentors are heightening their focus on India's expanding early stage ecosystem. Mumbai Angels founder Sasha Mirchandani is floating a new seed fund Kae Capital for very early stage deals.

14 Mar 2011: Educomp bags Rs 67.93 cr order from Maharashtra govt. 

Educomp said its ICT division 'Edureach' has bagged an order worth Rs 67.93 crore from Maharashtra government for implementing its solutions. Educomp Edureach has received the Letter of Intent (LoI) on March 9, 2011 from the Government of Maharashtra for implementation of ICT@Schools Project - Phase 2 in two regions, Nasik and Latur.

10 Mar 2011: Tech Mahindra opens tech center in Germany 

Tech Mahindra said it has opened a new development centre in Germany to service clients in the country and central Europe. Europe contributes about 54 per cent of the company's revenue, with Germany ranking second within the continent after the United Kingdom.

 

9 Mar 2011: Cognizant soars in US market 

Over the last year, IT major Cognizant's stocks have outperformed the American depositary receipts (ADR) of top tier Indian peers Infosys and Wipro on the US markets by a big margin. Between March 5, 2010, and March 4, 2011, Cognizant stocks on Nasdaq rose 55% to $76.32.

9 Mar 2011: HCL Infosystems bags IT order from Punjab and Sind Bank  

HCL Infosystems said it has received an order from Punjab and Sind Bank (PSB) to provide smart card-based solutions in over 1,500 villages across the country for an undisclosed amount.

The partnership aims to facilitate the provision of smart card-based technology solutions for financial inclusion, besides engaging and managing business correspondents deployed in unbanked villages allotted to PSB.

 

  

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Industry Updates : ITES / BFSI Sector

21 Mar 2011: Capgemini leads race for Headstrong buyout, deal pegged at $500 mn

Capgemini, one of the world's largest IT services companies, is in advanced talks to buy a controlling stake in mid-sized IT services provider Headstrong from the founders of the company and private equity investor Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe.

IBM and Hewlett Packard-EDS have also submitted preliminary bids for a controlling stake. Capgemini's bid values Headstrong at close to $500 million and could make it a clear front-runner in the competitive bidding process.

19 Mar 2011: Goldman Sachs appoints Sonjoy Chatterjee as new India head

Goldman Sachs has appointed Sonjoy Chatterjee as chairman of its India operations, making it yet another overseas bank to sign up a local rainmaker to drive strategic initiatives and growth in Asia's third largest economy.

Some other global banks operating in India with local chiefs are JP Morgan headed by Kalpana Morparia, Morgan Stanley headed by PJ Nayak, and HSBC headed by Naina Lal Kidwai.

17 Mar 2011: IBM inks 10-yr deal with Caparo India

IBM said it has bagged a 10-year outsourcing deal from Caparo India to provide enterprise resource planning and data centre infrastructure services.

Caparo chose to host the datacentre on IBM's Power Systems in a cloud model over competitor HP systems because the IBM solution will lower its upfront investments up to Rs 1 crore.

17 Mar 2011: EXL chairman denies rumours of sell-out

Even as the market hots up with reports every week of large Indian IT companies showing interest in Nasdaqlisted BPO firm EXL Service for a stake buyout, its founder and chairman Vikram Talwar said that he was in no mood to sell. Mr Talwar, added that the firm's strategy was to stay focused on standalone BPO services. 

17 Mar 2011: Former Firstsource CEO to join Bharti Enterprises

The former chief executive and MD of back-office services provider Firstsource Solutions (erstwhile ICICI Onesource Limited), Ananda Mukerji, will be joining Bharti Enterprises, the parent company of Airtel, the country's largest telecom operator.

Mukerji will be group director, business development, for Bharti Enterprises and will head strategy, in addition to scouting for M&A opportunities for the Sunil Mittal-led group.

17 Mar 2011: Mukesh Ambani on Bank of America board, first non-American member

Mukesh Ambani, chairman of India's most valued company Reliance Industries or RIL, has joined the board of the Bank of America Corporation, the largest US lender by assets.

16 Mar 2011: Anshu Jain earns more than Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackermann

Deutsche Bank AG, Germany's biggest bank, said Anshu Jain earned more than Chief Executive Officer Josef Ackermann last year after his corporate and investment banking unit reported record revenue.

Jain, 48, was paid about e12 million ($16.7 million) in salary, upfront and deferred bonuses and benefits, the Frankfurt-based company said. Ackermann, 63, was paid e8.99 million last year, compared with e9.55 million in 2009.

Jain, a potential successor to Ackermann, took over as sole head of the corporate and investment bank in July.

16 Mar 2011: Indian IT companies get ready to log out from quake-hit Japan

Four days into Japan's biggest crisis since World War II, India's top tech firms have started bringing back employees and moving work to their centres outside Japan.

While accounting for a meagre 1% of India's total software exports worth $60 billion, Japan has been one of the most lucrative markets for outsourcing firms with top customers such as Toshiba, Sony and Nisaan opening up offshoring to cut costs and cope with scarcity of locally-trained IT staff.

Several Indian IT players have centres in Japan with the larger ones like Infosys and Wipro employing over 400 people in the country. Pune-based Zensar has close to 200 people working on Japanese projects. These companies have offered their employees the option of sending their families home.

14 Mar 2011: Indian IT industry to hire 2.25 lakh in 2011: Deloitte

The Indian IT industry will add over 2.25 lakh employees in 2011 and will clock revenues of USD 71.7 billion by the end of the year, consulting firm Deloitte has said. 

Revenues from the information technology and business process outsourcing industry will reach USD 71.7 billion for 2011 and account for 5.8 per cent of the country's GDP, the firm said in its Technology, Media and Telecommunications Predictions for 2011.

The total number of employees working in the IT/ITeS (IT enabled services) sector will grow to 22.3 lakh this year, which translates into the addition of 2.26 lakh personnel, it said, adding that an additional 80 lakh people will get employment indirectly from the sector.

11 Mar 2011: Infosys closes 3 large deals of $50-200 million

Infosys recently closed three big transformational deals ranging between $50 million and $200 million and extending over a period of 4-5 years. The deals are with companies in the manufacturing, retail, and banking, financial services and insurance space.

The company expects the tally of transformational deals to touch around 15 by the end of this fiscal. Transformational deals are those that help clients in simplifying internal processes, harmonizing business processes across the enterprise, and contribute towards making organizations smarter and leaner.

11 Mar 2011: Infosys introduces its new brand positioning

Infosys Technologies introduced a new brand positioning and vision statement for itself, and said it's stepping into a whole new phase that it describes as Infosys 3.0.

The three-decade-old company said the world has changed in dramatic ways, particularly since the recession, which makes changes imperative. The changes are focused particularly on building its business transformation and innovation capabilities, and is clearly also an effort to compete more effectively with global peers like IBM and Accenture that have distinct advantages over Indian IT companies in these areas. The brand positioning statement has accordingly changed from 'Win in the flat world' to 'Building tomorrow's enterprise'.

10 Mar 2011: Wipro wins 5-yr IT contract from Canara Bank

Wipro Ltd said it has won a 5-year IT contract from state-run Canara Bank to provide its banking solution to three of the lender's rural banks. The value of the contract was not disclosed.

10 Mar 2011: Infosys scouts for foreign acquisitions

Infosys Technologies is searching for acquisitions to add companies that specialize in providing healthcare and government services. A team is scanning "day-in and day-out" for such technology companies and is looking for targets in non English-speaking countries. The team has examined about 150 potential purchases.

9 Mar 2011: Intelenet in 5-year outsourcing pact with Tata Teleservices

Intelenet Global Services (Intelenet) announced that it has signed a five-year outsourcing partnership with Tata group company, Tata Teleservices Limited.

This partnership elevates Intelenet's position and makes the company the first player to offer finance and accounting processes in the telecom vertical.  

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