The Hindu Business Line : Adobe forms new biz unit in India

(From left) Dr Naresh Gupta, Senior Vice-President, Adobe & MD - India R&D Centre; Mr Ajay Pande, Vice-President, Engineering and Partner, Business Unit, Adobe India; and Mr Don Walker, Senior Director, Business Development & Product Marketing, at a press conference in the Capital on Wednesday. - - Kamal Narang

New Delhi , Dec. 14

ADOBE Systems on Wednesday announced it would add 300 professionals in 2006, half of them in a business unit in India, which would be responsible for drawing out global strategies for Print and Classic Publishing products range.

Adobe Systems completed the acquisition of San Francisco-based Macromedia in a deal valued at $3.4 billion last week, and now has close to 650 employees in India.

"In India, Macromedia had a campus in Bangalore with 150 employees, while Adobe has 500 employees in Noida. Post-acquisition, the combined strength stands at 650 employees, and we plan to grow it by adding 300 professionals, next year," Mr Naresh Gupta, Senior Vice-President, Print and Classic Publishing Business Unit and Managing Director, India Research and Development of Adobe Systems, said at a conference here.

Of this, half of the growth in employee strength would be focused towards the new business unit, Mr Gupta said. "Adobe has six business units globally, of which, five are located in the US. The Print and Classic Publishing Unit in India, would be responsible for profit and loss of various products from both Adobe and Macromedia," he said.

The business units would define products, formulate global go-to-market strategy, pricing, positioning and promotion of the products under the Print and Classic Publishing banner.

"This is a big move for India, as it demonstrates how we are moving up the value chain. Many companies do product development in India, while others undertake functions such as maintenance and support. Adobe is not only looking at product development, but also business development from India. I believe this is the first time a global brand is bringing business unit functionality to the country," Mr Gupta said.

Since setting up its development centre at Noida in late 1997, the Adobe team in India has filed for 30 patents. Mr Gupta said the work on a PDF reader in Hindi was in progress. "Depending on the feedback we can launch PDF readers in other Indian languages too," he added.

The company started with an investment of $3 million in India, and, in 2001, announced another $10 million investment. In 2003, it announced an additional investment of $50 million in the next five years, but Mr Gupta said, "We are way ahead of the plan."

While Adobe India accounts for a big chunk of the company's engineering team, its contribution to the overall revenues is less 0.5 per cent.

"Piracy is a big hurdle in India. About 90-95 per cent of users of our products are using pirated software in India. If we bring down piracy by 10 per cent, our revenues from India could double," he said.

To check piracy, the company is running a pilot scheme in China where it is giving out its products at marginally cheaper prices. However, there is no such proposal for India as yet.

More Stories on : Software | Human Resources

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
`Low' in southeast Bay set to intensify

Raman Roy, Lankan co join to tap BPO opportunity

WTO meet: Stalemate on farm, export subsidies continues

E&Y evolves auditing standard for services companies

SC allows NTC mills, buyers to submit development plans

Stocks rise on hopes of realty development

Adobe forms new biz unit in India

Indian Hotels buys Sydney's W Hotel for $27 million

Panel asks Govt not to tax ECS payments by companies