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Zylog acquires Canadian firm for Rs 150 crore
February
2, 2010
Source: ET Bureau
CHENNAI: Zylog Systems, Chennai based Global technology integrator and business solution provider with more than 2000 employees worldwide, has
announced the acquisition of Brainhunter, a consulting and engineering services company in Canada for Canadian Dollar 35 Million (Rs 150 crore).
It was done through the company’s creditors arrangement Act ( CCAA) bidding process where Zylog emerged as the successful bidder. The 20 year old Canadian company has major presence in Government, telecom, BFSI and oil & pipeline verticals.
In a statement on Monday Zylog said it is an attractive deal in terms of its technology platform, ready access to a large talent pool, 1400 plus contractors, more than 400 diversified customer base with extensive preferred vendor relationship, more than 35 Government departments serviced and 40 plus customers contributing each more than 1 Million Canadian Dollar revenue.
The deal also has cost synergies with potential to save from offshoring certain contacts, sourcing of contractors from India for non-Government businesses, further reduction in non-billable staff etc.,
Zylog expects to establish a strong footprint in Canada, service existing customers there and diversify its revenue streams by offering comprehensive IT solutions to the customers of Brainhunter other than consulting services. Company chairman & CEO, Sudharshan Venkatraman said, "
Zylog has been looking to enter Canada for its operations and the acquisition would provide us with the appropriate platform. The target caters to Government departments ( which account for 30% of Brainhunter’s revenue), BFSI, Telecom which are the key focus segments for Zylog. Hence, there is huge potential for cross-sell". MD & COO, Ramanujam Sesharathnam said , "
The Canadian company is one of the few which has been least affected by the recent downturn. The IT spends of the Government of Canada and the banks have increased year and year and this trend is expected to continue. This provides a huge potential for Zylog to equip and position well to tap this opportunity".
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Google e-library under fire
February 2, 2010
Source: TNN
NEW DELHI: Even as it has been fighting China on Internet openness, Google is embroiled in a litigation in which publishers and authors from around
the world, including India, have accused it of violating copyright in its quest to create the world’s largest online library.
Joining a global campaign against the latest version of Global Book Settlement (GBS 2.0), Indian Repographic Rights Organisation (IRRO), which is the official copyright society for Indian authors and publishers, and Federation of Indian Publishers (FIP) filed their objections at a New York district court on Thursday, the deadline for doing so.
GBS 2.0 gives Google copyright immunity to distribute millions of books online, in exchange for sharing the revenue it generates with the rights holders. With the introduction this week, Apple’s iPad Tablet expected to enhance the popularity of digital books, GBS 2.0, which gives a first mover advantage to Google, is being vehemently opposed by the search giant’s rivals such as Microsoft , Amazon and Yahoo!.
The deal has divided opinion among copyright owners as some of authors and publishers have welcomed it as a fresh stream of revenue. One of the most controversial aspects of GBS 2.0 is “opt out” , a mechanism which puts the onus on copyright owners to keep their books out of the purview of this Google innovation . As IRRO’s statement put it, “This implies that if a person is silent, he is deemed to have consented to an agreement .” According to IRRO, Indian authors, without any representation of their interests , would be affected by the secret negotiations that a few US-based publishers have had with Google. While GBS 2.0 is ostensibly limited to books published in the US, UK, Canada and Australia, the deal would impact the rest of the world too as any author published in any of the four named countries would be covered by it.
In the keenly contested US litigation, the detractors of the Google deal gained strength when the governments of Germany and France filed objections. The US government is due to disclose its stand to the court by February 4.
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Blackstone to scale up CMS’ cash mgmt, printing ops
February 2, 2010
Source: ET Bureau
MUMBAI: Almost a year after its takeover of the domestic business of the CMS Group, private-equity firm Blackstone has drawn up a plan to
aggressively scale up the company’s cash management and printing businesses. The firm led by former Microsoft India chief executive, Rajiv Kaul, is also planning its first overseas foray through remote infrastructure management (RIM) services.
The move will put it in competition with established players such as HCL Technologies, Infosys Technologies and Tata Consultancy Services that are looking to scale up their RIM businesses aggressively. Mr Kaul, who is the executive vice-chairman and CEO of CMS Info Systems, said the RIM services would be launched in the next few months and potential customers could include Blackstone’s portfolio companies.
CMS Info Systems, the entity carved out from the CMS Group, is 60% owned by Blackstone and 40% by the original promoters, the Grover family.
CMS Info has also bagged the contract to supply personalised magnetic strip cards for the Rs 1,200-crore ESIC project from Wipro, Mr Kaul said. The contract could double CMS’ revenues from its cards and printing business. It will involve certifying and issuing cards to around one crore people and their families. CMS Info Systems consists of five businesses, cards personalisation, outsourced printing solutions, cash management, and the domestic systems integration and infrastructure management.
Following Blackstone’s acquisition, the businesses have been restructured and brought under outsourced business solutions and the domestic IT and training business.
Mr Kaul said he is in the process of hiring senior executives at the level of president to lead these businesses.
The cash management business, which involves transferring and maintaining optimal levels of cash in bank ATMs, is the company’s star business where it has a leading market share. Of the 27,000 ATMs managed by third-party providers in the country, CMS said it manages 17,000. “We are open to models where we set up and manage ATMs for banks and charge a fee on a per transaction basis... There was a lull in new ATM deployment in 2008, but we are now seeing it pick up again,” said Mr Kaul. The firm is, currently, pursuing several opportunities in this area, and was last in the news for being one of the bidders for ICICI’s ATM network, which was to be hived-off into a separate company.
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