Zylog plans overseas buying spree

15 June 2009

Zylog Systems India Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chennai-based Zylog Systems Ltd, plans to acquire two overseas companies by the year-end to ramp up its capabilities. On the sidelines of launching its 'Wi5' wireless broadband service, Ramanujam Sesharathnam, managing director and chief operating officer, said that the company was in talks with a couple of companies with revenue of less than $10 million in the e-governance and managed governance space.

The company had acquired PEQ Consulting, an infrastructure management company, and Fairfax Consulting in November 2008.

Sesharathnam also said Zylog Systems would invest about Rs200 crore in expanding its wireless broadband services in five metropolitan cities - Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata - in two years. It already has 250 wireless nodes installed across Chennai, amd 4,000 more nodes are expected to be operational in the city in 12-15 months, he added.

On why the company chose Wi5 technology and not the more advanced Wi-Max technology, J Shivkumar, chief technology officer, said most handheld devices such as mobiles, laptops and notebooks were only Wi5-enabled.

He added that in terms of cost, coverage and capacity, Wi5 was competitive, while the Wi-Max technology was expensive. The newly launched Wi5 retail packages are available at speeds of 1 mbps, 2 mbps and 4 mbps, costing Rs550, Rs1,000 and Rs1,750 a month respectively.

Chief operating officer R Janakiraman said the company will roll out the service in Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune by mid 2010. Around Rs84 crore will be invested in Phase-I to create the infrastructure. The company targets Rs500 crore in revenues in the next five years through the service.