Search the Internet          Tips  Sites: Finance, Investment

Infosys eyes non-US telecom firms in de-risking move

BS Corporate Bureau

As part of an initiative to de-risk its business model, Infosys Technologies, India's number two software exporter, has decided to work with telecom service providers around the world and telecom equipment makers outside the US.

The company is working on strategies to reduce its exposure to some of the troubled US-based telecom equipment vendors and expand the customer base.

"We have done two things to de-risk our business: we have started working with service providers across the world and we have also started working with equipment providers outside the US," Nandan Nilekani, president, chief executive and managing director, Infosys, said here today.

"In any case, our total telecom revenues is about 15.4 per cent and we have been trying to create a broader base of customers," he said. Commenting on the company's outlook for the much talked about acquisition strategy, Nilekani said that acquisition was an "intended strategy" and the company believed in its goal to become end-to-end services provider.

"There were certain things which needed to be done organically and some inorganically and is on a continuous lookout for potential companies," he said.

"These acquisitions' opportunity relates to things that help us to strengthen our brand or to enter into a new market or get a set of expertise that we do not have or acquire front end consulting capability. That is the charter," he said, adding that as and when Infosys found the right company which fitted into the strategy, it would look into the proposal.

He did not say anything on the number of companies that had been shortlisted for acquisition or the size of the proposed acquisition. "It could be companies in the US or Europe," Nilekani said.

Infosys is also planning to set up a new 100-acre campus near Bangalore, for which it has made a request to the government.

"We have made a request to the government for an additional 100 acres on the outskirts of Bangalore, which we will take up at an appropriate time," Nilekani said. Asked as to when the company would require the new facility, he said "it would be a part of our planning process."

The company currently has facilities in eight cities including Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Mangalore and Mysore.

Powered by

ALSO READ:
The Rediff Budget Special
The Rediff-Business Standard Special
Money

Tell us what you think of this report