Source: www.idahostatesman.com

Workers, speaking on condition they not be named, say their jobs will be phased out next year between January and August.

Between now and August, Micron Technology is outsourcing much of its information technology department, with at least some work moving to India.

The company hasn’t disclosed its plans publicly, but employees who have contacted the Idaho Statesman say the outsourcing could eliminate several hundred more jobs at the company’s Boise headquarters.

Micron isn’t the only local company outsourcing IT jobs to India. SuperValu, which bought Albertsons in June 2006, announced Tuesday that it was laying off 180 IT workers — including an unspecified number in Boise — and sending the work to India.

Micron workers cannot speak publicly without risking the loss of any severance packages, but several who have contacted the Statesman say the plans were unveiled earlier this month.

Most jobs will either be outsourced to India or contracted to a third party, workers say. Most of the employees affected say they will have their jobs phased out between January and August.

The Idaho Labor Department hasn’t been notified of any additional layoffs. The last count given to the department was just over 1,100 employees laid off as of Aug. 30.

Normally Micron would have had to provided advance notice of the more than 1,100 layoffs, but the company didn’t and chose instead to pay the penalty for violating the federal Warn Act, which requires advance notification.

The penalty was two months of additional pay for each employee. Some employees, however, have been upset because Micron subtracted those two months from the severance pay the employees were entitled to receive under the company’s policies.

Because Micron appears to be laying off IT workers in stages, the company probably won’t be required to give advance notice this time.

Bob Fick, a spokesman for the Idaho Labor Department, said the Warn Act has a provision for “rolling layoffs,” but a company would have to lay off at least 500 within 90 days to face the reporting requirement.

The Micron employees will qualify for extended unemployment benefits and federal retraining dollars already approved for Micron workers, Fick said.

The company hasn’t said how many total layoffs it is planning, but in its most recent annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said more layoffs are likely.

“We are pursuing a number of initiatives to reduce costs and increase revenue across our operations,” the company wrote.

“These initiatives include work force reductions in certain areas as we realign our business. Additional initiatives include establishing certain operations closer in location to our global customers, evaluating functions more efficiently performed through partnerships or other outside relationships, and reducing our overhead costs to meet or exceed industry benchmarks.”

Source: www.business-standard.com

India’s second largest IT services provider, Infosys, expects to close 15 big deals over the next 10 months, each worth $100 million or more.

The company hopes to finalise many other deals during the same period with the average size of each in the region of $10-15 million, according to S Gopalakrishnan, CEO and managing director.

“We expect fewer multi-year billion-dollar deals in the future,” he said.

The company is also open to acquisitions “if a match is found”, he said. The company, with a cash reserve of Rs 7,319 crore as on September 30, has set aside around $500 million for acquisitions. The company has identified three to five potential acquisition targets, including one consulting firm.

When compared to other Indian IT companies such as TCS and Wipro, mergers and acquisitions has not been Infosys’ forte. In July, the company bought the finance and accounts BPO centres of Royal Philips Electronics for Rs 110 crore.

It also won a $250 million contract from Philips in the process. Prior to that, Infosys had acquired Expert Information Services in Australia for around Rs 104 crore ($22.9 million) in 2003.

The company’s acquisition strategy is focused on filling in gaps in the outsourcing space. “Our acquisitions need to provide new platforms for Infosys to base its business on or open new markets.

The company is cautious in selecting target companies, looking not only for strategic fits but also the overlap of ability to retain employees and align values, culture and ethics,” said Gopalakrishnan, who added that Infosys did not support hostile takeovers.

The company has reportedly won clients and contracts at 3-4 per cent higher rates, and contract renegotiations are 2-3 per cent above average. Its top 10 customers grew by 2.7 per cent quarter-on-quarter and the non-top 10 grew 13.7 per cent sequentially.

“ Since we plan projects on a basis of 30 per cent onshore and 70 per cent offshore, this indicates more offshore reliance to control cost compared with a previous 40:60 split. Also, the management has increased attention on increasing productivity in the last year with a current fixed price now being higher than the average margin by 3-4 per cent,” he said.

“I do see our revenues from India crossing 5 per cent in the next couple of years but for India to become a larger market, we would have to wait,” added Gopalakrishnan.