Source: in.ibtimes.com

Acquisition is in the air. Japan’s biggest mobile services provider NTT DoCoMo Inc. is reportedly buying about 26 percent stake in India’s second biggest CDMA-based mobile phone operator Tata Teleservices for 260 billion yen ($2.7 billion).

According to Japan’s Nikkei Net Interactive website, the companies will announce the deal on Wednesday afternoon.

The website said DoCoMo will obtain about 20 percent stake in the form of new shares and purchase the remaining 6 percent stake from existing shareholders in the Indian company.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Sankei newspaper said, without quoting sources, that DoCoMo plans to spend $1.5 billion to buy 25 percent stake in Tata Teleservices.

DoCoMo said in a statement it had not made any such decision while Tata Teleservices has refused to comment on the matter.

If the stake buy goes ahead, it will give DoCoMo veto power as, under Indian laws of acquisition, stakes exceeding 25 percent give shareholders such rights.

Company sources said DoCoMo was in talks with Tata Teleservices since September.

According to a DoCoMo spokesman, the Japanese company will send one of its executives to sit on the Tata board.

The deal comes at a time when top Indian mobile operators are vying to acquire rights for operating high-speed 3G services. Tata Teleservices, an affiliate of the $66 billion Tata Group, is India’s sixth largest mobile services provider with around 30 million subscribers, after Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Vodafone-Essar, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Idea Cellular. Of these, only Reliance Communications operate on the CDMA-based network.

According to Shinji Moriyuki, a telecoms analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities, DoCoMo’s latest acquisition would be positive for the company, especially with its extensive knowledge of 3G network services to which many developing countries are now moving.

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Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

MUMBAI: With a view to broadening its footprint in Europe, leading software major Satyam Computer Services, is mulling acquisitions in France, a top company official said.

“We see fairly large opportunities and are looking at acquisitions of French companies to expand our operations,” Satyam’s Continental Europe Head, Peter Heij, told visiting journalists at the company’s Wiesbaden facility near Frankfurt recently.

The company is also mulling an expansion in Germany, the largest economy in Europe, he said.

Satyam has recently sealed a few acquisitions, those of Nitor Global Solutions and Citisoft Plc in the UK and S&V Management Consultants in Belgium.

“Our vision is have 30 per cent of our global revenue emanating out of Europe by FY 10. To enter some of the European countries, we have to hire local people and acquire companies. We need to have an office in France,” Heij said.

In the current business scenario, European markets are evolving as a major IT park for software development. These markets are demanding greater knowledge and understanding of country-specific issues, EU directives and resolutions, he said.

France preferred to undertake sourcing of IT services in its own language and with local firms. Major international firms are well represented in France with providers like AtosOrigin, Sopra, Sogeti & Thales capitalising on the advantage of “being French”.

At 9.1 per cent, Germany’s CAGR for application outsourcing spending falls below the European average of 10 per cent. Of the Euro 2.4-billion that German firms spend on application outsourcing today, Euro 1.3-billion goes towards application maintenance services.

At the corporate level, Europe has been identified as one of the main focus regions. As a result there is increased management attention and more investment in the European region, Heij said.

“Our European strategy has succeeded in delivering profitable growth. In 2007, we demonstrated that we were focused on building sustainable and profitable relationships.

Our 2007 plan has delivered a growing position in European markets, deeper engagement with our major accounts and revenue growth above market trend,” Heij said.

Asked whether recession in the US would slow down global growth or have a wider impact, Heij said, the deterioration in financial markets and tighter credit conditions have increased the risk of recession and failure of businesses.

“With continued inflationary pressure from higher oil, commodity and food prices, monetary policy decisions will have to strike a delicate balance between growth and inflation,” he said.

Customers will have less money to spend but business activity would neither reduce substantially nor come to a complete standstill, Heij said.