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Vishwanath Kulkarni

Bangalore, Sept. 4

Wipro Technologies, global IT arm of Wipro Ltd, is exploring options to wind up its development centre in Sophia Antipolis, France.

It has started a consultation process with local employees in this connection.

The Wipro-New Logic development centre in Sophia Antipolis, that employs 61 engineers, builds components and connectivity-based semiconductor intellectual property (IPs) in wireless and wire line segments that are used by customers in System on Chip (SoC) and ASIC designs.

“We are exploring various options and no decision has been taken as yet,” said Mr Vasudevan Aghoramurty, the Vice-President and Head of Semiconductor and Systems Business at Wipro Technologies, told Business Line.

A combination of a weak market and the challenging situation faced by customers has forced Wipro to review its semiconductor IP portfolio, which is a small portion of the overall semiconductor business.

“We don’t see the business being viable any longer ,” Mr Aghoramurthy said.

The company has initiated a consultation procedure with the employee representatives in France in accordance with the local laws and part of the social plan.

The consultation procedure relates to the proposed exit from the semiconductor IP portfolio and the potential closure of the centre in Sophia-Antipolis.

“We are also looking at options such as re-deploying the workforce both internally and externally,” he said.

Wipro had acquired the Austrian semiconductor design service provider New Logic in December 2005 in a $56 million all cash deal. Subsequently, Wipro-New Logic was made a business unit of the Product Engineering Solutions (PES) group.

The Wipro NewLogic combine offers semiconductor design services and supplies IP for complex wireless and wireline applications. The services span digital, analog, mixed signal, Radio Frequency (RF) based System on Chip (SoC) designs.

“We do not expect other parts of the Wipro NewLogic business to be significantly impacted by the proposal,” said Mr Christophe Martinoli, Head of France, Wipro Technologies, in a statement. “France continues to be a key and growing market for Wipro,” he added.

“NewLogic has fully complied and will continue to comply with the French laws in relation to the consultation procedure with the employee representatives in France. The company and its entire senior management are fully committed to support all employees throughout this process and have full confidence in the team leading the project,” Mr Martinoli said.

The semiconductor IP business is a small part of the overall Research and Development services team at Wipro Technologies, which does not disclose the segment revenues. The company has a VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) engineering team of 1,500 and the overall R&D services team exceeds 13,000.

Wipro has seen a sluggish growth in its PES division, trailing the company average in the past few quarters as key customers in segments such as telecom saw a large scale consolidation. The PES division accounts for a fifth of Wipro Technologies’ revenues as compared to a third about two years ago.

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