Alliances News: 29/4/10

SYMANTEC IN PACT WITH AIRTEL
The Financial Express

Symantec, developer of Norton Internet Security solutions, and telecom services provider Bharti Airtel, in collaboration with Lotaris, a Swiss mobile Internet security service provider, have launched Norton Smartphone Security for Airtel's mobile customers in India, a release said.

INFOTECH, WESTINGHOUSE TIE UP
Hyderabad
The Economic Times  

Infotech Enterprises Ltd, a geo-spatial and engineering services company, has finalised a deal with the nuclear energy company, Westinghouse Electric Co, that would enable the former to explore the opportunities in the nuclear energy business. “Infotech will augment the engineering resources of Westinghouse as it prepares for global nuclear energy business growth and will lay the foundation for Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear power plant work in India,” B.V.R. Mohan Reddy, Chairman and Managing Director, Infotech Enterprises Ltd, said.

 

Alliances News : 28/4/10

RELIANCE COMM, US FIRM TIE UP FOR APPLICATION STORES
Mumbai
Hindustan Times  Business Standard  The Statesman  

Reliance Communications Ltd, India’s No. 2 mobile services firm, said on Tuesday it had entered into a pact with Silicon Valley-based GetJar for mobile application services. Reliance will offer GetJar’s catalog of more than 65,000 free mobile applications to its GSM as well as CDMA customers, the Indian operator said in a statement.

India’s leading mobile firms such as Bharti Airtel and Reliance are launching online mobile applications stores, opening up a new revenue stream from add-on services such as music and social networking. Bharti said last month its mobile applications store had clocked more than 2.5 million downloads in its first month of launch, with users in smaller cities leading.

 

RP INFOSYSTEMS TO BUY 46% IN ONTRACK
Sutanuka Ghosal & Debjoy Sengupta, Kolkata
The Economic Times (Kolkata edition)

The Rs 918-crore RP Infosystems, makers of the Chirag brand of low-cost PCs, is scouting for acquisitions in the software and ISP space. For starters, this emerging computer hardware and networking solutions provider from the east is poised to buy a 46% stake in city-based Ontrack Systems, which is into web services, software development, training and BPO services. It has also sounded out local software developer Descon to acquire its ISP business. Descon is the software arm of DPSC Ltd, which distributes power to industrial installations in pockets of West Bengal.

RP Infosystems chairman Kaustuv Roy said: “We’ve finalised the deal with Ontrack Systems. At its April 12 board meeting, Ontrack decided to raise funds. It will issue preferential shares to RP Infosystems once it gets Sebi clearance. The proposal is likely to be approved at Ontrack’s May 13 AGM.”

 

INTEGRA ACQUIRES US’ SILVER EDITIONS FOR UNDER $4 MILLION
Hemamalini Venkatraman, Chennai
The Economic Times

After long-drawn negotiations, Integra Software Services (Integra) has acquired US-based Silver Editions, a design studio and publishing services company in the PreK-12 segment. The deal size is estimated to be under $4 million. Two other Indian players, bigger than Integra, were also in the fray.

Integra founder and chairman-CEO Sriram Subramanya confirmed the transaction to ET on Tuesday. However, he did not divulge the deal size. The funding has been “through internal accruals,” he added. It has taken Integra almost over two years to complete the 100% acquisition. For now, it will operate as Silver Editions (an Integra company). The name change process is expected to take about a year’s time.

 

M&A News: 9/4/10

MPHASIS: PURCHASE WON’T FORTIFY NUMBERS IN SHORT TERM
Ranjit Shinde
The Economic Times

Remote IT solutions provider Fortify Infrastructure Services has a smaller size of operations. Hence, its acquisition will not have any significant influence on MphasiS’ short-term financials.

The MphasiS management hopes that the deal will improve its presence in the fast-growing segment of outcome-based remote operations management.

MphasiS has paid over $15.5 million (approximately Rs 70.5 crore) to own 100% in Fortify. The deal size may increase in future since MphasiS has agreed to make performance-based payments to Fortify in two tranches over the next two years. There is no clarity on the size of these payments or earnouts. Therefore, it is difficult to ascertain the total size of the deal.

 

NETAPP TO ACQUIRE BYCAST
Bangalore
The Hindu Business Line

NetApp, provider of innovative storage and data management solutions, on Thursday announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Bycast Inc., a privately held company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in an all-cash transaction.

Bycast is a leading developer of object-based storage software designed to manage petabyte-scale, globally distributed repositories of images, video, and records for enterprises and service providers. With the acquisition of Bycast, NetApp broadens its capabilities in serving key verticals such as digital media, Web 2.0, healthcare, and cloud services providers and helps customers create even greater efficiencies across data centres around the globe, a company press release said.

 

AI IN $190-M DEAL WITH SITA FOR PASSENGER SERVICE PLATFORM
Mumbai
The Financial Express  The Hindu Business Line

National Aviation Company of India (Nacil), which runs national carrier Air India, has roped in SITA, an aviation IT specialist, to provide it a Horizon passenger services system (PSS) on a turnkey basis following a global competitive tendering process. The deal with the 13.5-million passenger airline is valued at $190 million (Rs 874 crore), and has a tenure of 10 years.

SITA’s Horizon platform provides hosted PSS services to 140 airlines boarding 120 million passengers and will be used to deliver a single airline code in order to allow the seamless integration of the former domestic carrier, Indian Airlines, with Air India for the first time since they merged in August 2007. Another early deliverable will enable Air India to meet the requirements for joining the Star Alliance.