Source: www.business-standard.com

Very close to acquiring an European IT firm for $20-25 million (around Rs.100-crore) Indian IT major, Patni Computer Systems is expected to announce the deal within the next two months.

An acquisition of major importance, two private equity majors i.e. Apax and Carlyle, are in advanced discussions to acquire a 20% stake in the Indian IT major from Ashok Kumar Patni and Gajendra Kumar Patni, two of its largest shareholders, who together hold approximately a 29% share in Patni Computer Systems.

Sources close to the development confirm, the takeover of the media and telecom operations of the European firm, whose name stands undisclosed, has been finalised by Patni, and the acquisition is scheduled closure within 45-days.

Patni, India’s sixth largest firm, eager to strengthen its foothold in Europe and USA, including increasing its presence in the media and telecom space, has been on the lookout for suitable acquisiton targets in Europe and USA.

Declining to comment when contacted, however, Deepak Khosla, Senior Vice-President (Strategic Initiatives) of Patni admitted his firm was interested in finding strategic fits in USA and Europe.

In June 2006, Patni, in keeping with its global plans, in an asset purchase transaction of $425,000 acquired US-based ZAiQ Technologies, an integrated service (ASIC) design firm that provides outsourced design services and software products to firms, who are in the business of developing complex, high performance systems and integrated circuits.

Source: www.business-standard.com

Emerging as the second largest research and development (R&D) for Cadence Design Systems, a firm specialising in electronic design and automation (EDA) tools and services, and which has drawn up a blueprint for significantly increasing the R&D output of its Indian operations.

Entering India as far back as 1987, Cadence set up an R&D centre at Noida, whose current headcount stands close to 1,000, with Cadence India accounting for 22% of the firm’s worldwide R&D strength and 18% of its total staff count of 5,200.

Jaswinder S Ahuja, Managing Director of Cadence Design Systems (India) says its Indian R&D centre is the firm’s largest outside the USA, and employs 1,200-professionals across multiple locations. With its Indian R&D centre handling Cadence’s entire product portfolio starting from EDA tools for designing, to verifying advanced semi-conductors for various sectors, expectations are high that R&D work will increase 15% depending on what the business requires.

As well, apart from USA and India, the $1.5-billion company operates R&D centres in Canada, Ireland, Scotland, France, Italy, Israel, China, Taiwan, Japan and Russia. However, the headcount is small in these centres, due to the fact that they focus only on particular products, unlike India, which is a microcosm of Cadence’s entire research and development competency.

As Ahuja points out: “Cadence has a 20-year-history in India and the R&D centre has developed individual level of ownership for various products. India is a critical and essential part of our business strategy. It is viewed as the most successful global R&D centre for Cadence. It is now assisting setting up of new R&D centres in other geographies.”

The other factor that is contributing to Cadence’s growth in India is the development of the local electronics industry. Little wonder then, India is considered the fastest growing market for Cadence in the Asia Pacific region.

Affirming Ahuja says: “In the last four years, India grew phenomenally. We are catering to almost all of the electronics design firms, including chip designing companies.”

Further, aside from its R&D operations, the Cadence also manages global customer care centres in Bangalore and Noida.