CA Technologies’ India Technology Centre opens in Hyderabad

Leading IT management software and solutions company, CA Technologies, has decided on a $600 million R&D spend in the current year with focus on emerging one of the top companies in cloud computing and virtualisation management segments.

It has set aside another $500 million and is scouting for suitable companies that can bring in new technologies through mergers and acquisitions. According to the company there are some 250-300 companies, including public and private firms, from which it would look for suitable candidates.

The New York-based company has set up a state-of-art India Technology Centre at Hyderabad, with over 2.5 lakh sq ft built area at an estimated $30 million investment outlay. The new campus has the capacity to accommodate 1,000 members in addition to the current headcount of 1,600 and the single largest R&D facility expected to develop about 30 per cent of the company's global products.

According to chief executive officer William McCracken, the technology provider, with 55 per cent revenue from North America and 45 per cent from the rest of the world, has decided to make substantial investments in the emerging markets, BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries in particular. The company aims to lead the virtualisation management and cloud computing segments he added. McCraken was speaking to reporters in Hyderabad.

''Cloud computing is rapidly growing and we are in a good position to move into one of the top positions. This is the primary area,'' he said. The company aims to develop technologies internally and create a platform for that, but at the same time, the platform ''will allow us'' to bring technology from outside that could be integrated.

Responding to a query about US president Barack Obama's statement on banning outsourcing which states like Ohio had already adopted, he said CA Technologies would not be impacted by the move as it did not provide services.

Regarding the significant reduction in the IT spend, he said while the IT spend worldwide stood at around 7 per cent, CA Technologies was looking beyond that with major portion of the revenues being contributed by mainframe technologies.

''On the acquisition side, we had already said that we will invest anywhere between $300 million and $600 million. Probably at the current rate, it may be $300 million and also depends on what technology is available and how it is useful to us,'' McCracken said. He added that adding that IT spend growth in the markets that they were participating in would be about 7 per cent this year.