The Hindu Business Line : 2005: Mega deals in ICT arena

Mega deal making was at its bubbly best in 2005 in the information technology and telecom arena. There were several champagne moments for the industry: Bharti Tele-Ventures heralded the world's largest mobile operator Vodafone's dramatic re-entry into the Indian mobile market; the $2.2-billion ABN Amro deal is expected to open up a pipeline of offshoring opportunity for Indian vendors; Oracle's acquisition of equity stake in i-flex Solutions was a defining moment for the Indian products story, and the flurry of telecom equipment manufacturing commitments by the likes of Nokia, Ericsson, Flextronics, Samsung, LG and SemIndia makes India a compelling manufacturing destination for the first time in several years.

LANDMARK DEAL FOR SERVICES SECTOR: Mr N. R. Narayana Murthy , Chief Mentor and Chairman, Infosys. ABN Amro deal signed in September marks a landmark deal for the Indian software services industry. It isexpected to bring in a new phase of unbundled deals.This marks a structural change in the software services landscape since it represents that Indian vendors can compete head-to-head with multinational vendors and can win. For TCS and Infosys, it marked a big step forward. GM could be the next mega deal in the offing. - - P.V. Sivakumar

POWERING AHEAD: The Wipro Chairman, Mr Azim Premji. Wipro acquired payment software maker mPower for $28 million and Austria-based NewLogic for $56 million. The year saw Mr Vivek Paul quitting Wipro to pursue his interests.

TRENDSETTER IN TELECOM: Mr Arun Sarin, CEO, Vodafone plc (left), and Mr Sunil Mittal, Chairman and Group MD, Bharti Tele-Ventures Vodafone acquired around 10 per cent stake in Bharti Tele-Ventures investing around Rs 6,700 crore in October. - - Rajeev Bhatt

AGGRESSIVE ACQUISITIONS: The TCS Chief Executive, Mr S. Ramadorai. TCS acquired the Chile-based business process outsourcing firm Comicrom for $23 million in an all-cash deal. Earlier it had acquired the insurance transaction processing unit of the UK-based Pearl Group Ltd and the Sydney-based Financial Network Services (FNS), a core banking solutions vendor. It bagged the bigger chunk of the ABN-Amro deal.

ENERGISING THE SECTOR: The Union Minister for Information Technology, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, is keen on better connectivity and bridging the digital divide. Many global majors had made significant investment decisions in favour of India, especially in hardware and telecom. Nokia, Ericsson, AMD have announced plans to set up manufacturing units and Alcatel has set up a research centre. — Ramesh Sharma.

MAJOR DEAL IN PRODUCTS SPACE: The Senior Vice-President (Application development), Oracle Corporation, Mr John Wookey, and the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, during the inauguration of Oracle-India Development Centre's Hyderabad campus in August. Oracle's acquisition of majority stake in i-flex Solutions is one of the largest deals in the Indian products space. — Mohammed Yousuf