Acquisitions News: 22/1/10

PROGRESS SOFT ACQUIRES SAVVION INC
Chennai/Hyderabad
Business Standard

Application infrastructure software provider Progress Software Corporation, which has its India operations based out of Hyderabad, has acquired Savvion Inc, a California-based business enterprise software developer, for $49 million (approximately Rs 225 crore).

“Our acquisition of Savvion enhances our goal to provide unprecedented business visibility, responsiveness and business process improvement, coupled with highest degree of data integrity and integration,” Rick Reidy, president and chief executive of Progress Software, stated in a press release on Tuesday.

Progress Software, which employs 1,800 globally, has a workforce of 250 in Hyderabad. It has invested $10 million (around Rs 46 crore) in its Hyderabad facility over the last five years.

The company has revised its business outlook, reflecting the anticipated impact from the acquisition of Savvion. It expects its GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) revenues to be in the range of $538 million (Rs 2,474crore) to $548 million (Rs 2,520 crore) for the fiscal ending November 30, 2010.

Progress Software expects to issue aggregate of approximately 110,000 equity shares to six Savvion employees, who have joined Progress as part of the acquisition.

 

BHARTI-LIMELIGHT LINK UP TO DELIVER MULTIMEDIA SERVICES
Leslie D'Monte, Mumbai
Financial Chronicle  The Telegraph    

India’s largest private telecom company, Bharti Airtel, wants to help international players deliver multimedia content to Indian players, while simultaneously helping local companies to deliver content to foreign ones. It has tied up with Limelight Networks to launch content delivery network (CDN) services in the country. Limelight is the second-largest CDN player globally in terms of revenues.

The combine will set up servers in Chennai and Mumbai, that complement Airtel’s existing network infrastructure that enables it access to undersea cables via international cable landing stations at these two cities, according to Ajay Chitkara, CEO, Global Data Business, Bharti Airtel.

A CDN, according to Frost & Sullivan analysts, basically comprises technology and services that enable the rapid and uninterrupted flow of content from the origin server to the end user. There are over 20 CDN vendors, including big names like Akamai, Internap, Limelight Networks, SyncCast, BitGravity, Velocix and even Amazon. The market for CDN services in Asia is estimated to be $350 milion by 2014, while the CDN market in India is expected to be $100 million (Rs 455 crore).

Limelight Networks and Bharti Airtel will offer their customers “the ability to create a high-quality experience for their end-users — whether they’re watching an HD movie, making an online purchase, listening to music, playing a video game, or downloading a software package”.

“Over the last few years, internet usage has completely changed from using simple text to more of multimedia options (video, games, etc). Today, users expect online video, music, images, and software to behave just like content accessed by turning on a TV, playing a CD or DVD, or loading an application from a hard drive,” reasons Chitkara.

Limelight Networks would get access to one of the fastest growing emerging markets, says George Fraser, its Vice-President (EMEA & Asia).

The company’s architecture includes a dedicated optical network that connects thousands of servers around the world with over 900 last-mile access networks and 25 delivery centres. It has “eight years of experience in successfully delivering some of the largest live and on-demand events in the history of the internet, including the 2008 Beijing Games and the 2009 inauguration speech of US President Obama,” said Fraser.