M&A Updates: 21/05/09

 

NUCLEUS, INDONESIAN CO TIE UP
New Delhi
The Hindu Business Line

Banking and financial software company Nucleus Software Exports Ltd has entered into a channel partnership with Mitra Integrasi Informatika for its operations in Indonesia, a company release said today. ''This partnership will leverage Nucleus' domain experience and MII's local market knowledge,'' the release said. MII is a subsidiary of Indonesian information technology service provider PT Metrodata Electronics and focuses on IT system and network integration, consultancy and outsourcing services.

SATNAV IN PACT WITH HTC
Hyderabad
The Hindu Business Line

SatNav Technologies, a GPS navigation solutions company, has entered into a tie-up with HTC for bundling its SatGuide solutions with the latter’s phone. The company has similar arrangements with dealers of Asus, i-mate, HP and HTC that bundle the SatGuide maps as a key value add with various phone models sold in the Indian market.

“With these tie-ups, SatNav will extend the map data to all Windows’ phones present in the market. The software is bundled with phones like Asus P527, P750, i-mate Utl 8502, 9502 and HP. Now, the software will also be bundled onto HTC’s high-end models like P3470,” Amit Prasad, Founder, CEO and MD of SatNav Technologies, said here in a release.

SYSTAT SOFTWARE IN COLLABORATION WITH RESCENTRIS RELEASES SIGMACERF
Bangalore
The Financial Express

Cranes Software announced that its subsidiary Systat Software, Inc., (SSI) has entered into an agreement with Rescentris, Inc. of Columbus, OH, to globally offer their joint product, SigmaCERF - an Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) and knowledge management platform for life science research organizations.

CERF, Collaborative Electronic Research Framework, is a unique ELN solution designed specifically for scientists and R&D organizations. SigmaCERF unifies management of lab data and electronic record-keeping. Projects, documents, data, and notebooks are managed centrally on a secure server but can be created and utilized from anywhere on the Internet. Industry experts predict the market for ELN to be one of the fastest technology growth areas as biotech organizations strive for maximum efficiency and safe access to IP records. To serve life sciences organizations, SigmaCERF is cross-platform, highly scalable, and 21CFR11-compliant.

“Lab notebooks are used by scientists and technicians to document research, protocols, experimental data and outcomes. The move from paper-based notebooks to electronic formats is very real with one-third of all biopharmaceutical organizations having at least one system installed today. We are excited to partner with a technology leader like Rescentris who has the vision and experience to develop an ELN solution that works the way biologists work – with additional modules for other scientific disciplines. Our SigmaPlot, SigmaStat and SYSTAT customers can now source tools that cater to different aspects of their research process from one single reliable source.” states Dr. Leland Wilkinson CTO, SSI.

The award-winning CERF technology brings flexibility, collaboration, and security to major research organizations and boosts R&D performance through a variety of unique capabilities. CERF utilizes semantic web technologies to enable extensibility and integration of the numerous data sources and applications used by life scientists. More than replacing paper, CERF organizes daily research activities for the scientist and the team – users access their data, tools and workflow and never leave the scientific desktop of CERF. The SigmaCERF platform further enables the delivery of the rich data analysis and publishing components provided by Systat.

 

HITACHI DATA SYSTEMS TIES UP WITH WIPRO INFOTECH TO OFFER IT SOLUTIONS
The Financial Express

As the market dynamics change, information companies are partnering with each other to strengthen their commitment in delivering cutting edge services to customers. Hitachi Data Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd, has partnered with Wipro Infotech to offer better customer services.

Says Natarajan Viswanathan, VP and managing director, India, Hitachi Data Systems, “The alliance with Wipro Infotech strengthens our commitment in delivering formal, flexible, cutting-edge channel programmes to our partners and this relationship will strengthen our foothold in different customer verticals.”

Hitachi Data Systems Corporation provides Services Oriented Storage Solutions that enable heterogeneous storage to be dynamically provisioned according to business needs and centrally managed via industry leading Hitachi storage virtualisation software.

Natarajan brings with him 29 years of experience in country sales management, business development and operational leadership of start-up organisations such as Bangalore Labs & Microland. He was also the area vice- president with Parametric Technology Corporation.

TECHMA EYES 50 PERCENT STAKE OF VGE IN SATYAM JV
Shweta Bhanot, Rachana Khanzode, Mumbai
The Financial Express

Tech Mahindra, the new owner of the Satyam Computer Services, is now eyeing 50 percent shares of Venture Global Engineering Services (VGE) in Satyam’s joint venture (50:50) company Satyam Venture Engineering Services (SVES). SVES would continue to operate as a separate entity and Satyam would continue to be a shareholder, sources close to development said. The Rs 70 crore SVES is an automotive division of Satyam and provides high-end engineering solutions.

However, the ongoing case filed by Satyam against VGE over breach of the joint venture agreement and events of default, is expected to delay the process of takeover by Tech Mahindra. Satyam had earlier filed the case in the London Court of International Arbitration seeking among other things, to purchase VGE’s 50 percent interest in SVES at the agreed upon book value price of the shares and was granted the same. However, VGE challenged the decision and appealed to the Andhra Pradesh High Court and the decision is still pending. Tech Mahindra’s dream will have to wait till the court disposes the case in Satyam’s favour. When contacted, Tech Mahindra officials said, “Since the matter is subjudice, we are not in a position to comment about it.”

An industry expert said, “Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has a vision to get its hands on everything that goes into automotive manufacturing, from design to the whole product. M&M will be able to leverage automotive engineering expertise of SVES for its automotive business.” He added that with these capabilities, M&M would be able to negotiate on costs with SVES, which may not be the case with other engineering service players in the market.

Another industry expert with domain knowledge in automotive added it will depend upon how the company plans to chalk out its synergy plans and pointed that since the work is contract based and clients look for securing the intellectual property right (IPR), one needs to watch out how much M&M can extract from the new buy out. The Indian automotive engineering services industry is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 32 percent by 2012-13. “The industry has generated revenues to the tune of $500-600 million in 2007 and there is $2.2 billion potential outsourcing opportunity in the next two years,” said Frost & Sullivan, South Asia and West Asia director (automotive and transportation) VG Ramakrishnan. However, he added there was a need at the industry association level to spin off automobile engineering services from IT sector, furnishing an example of Satyam Ventures, which is totally into automotive engineering services.