Infosys mulls growth through acquisitions; to hire 15,000

Infosys Technologies said on Thursday that it hoped to recruit 15,000 people in the near future and had already started the process with campus visits, even as it looked for acquisitions in Europe and some non-English speaking countries.

''We are looking for acquisitions,'' Infosys chief executive officer and managing director Kris Gopalakrishnan told reporters on the sidelines of the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum in Mumbai on yesterday.

He added that the company was open to acquisitions everywhere...and across verticals.

He said the company had already given a raise in salary in October, which worked out to around 8 per cent on an average in India. He added that what the company would do in April would need to be seen then as the next cycle for increment was in April.

Gopalakrishnan said that at the moment there was no upside pricing and it would continue to remain flat.

He added that discretionary spending was happening now, but the industry would have to wait and see how fast it would rise, how much it would be etc, but there were definitely signs of discretionary spending.

Responding to a query on the Chinese market he said that it would take a lot more of doing to take advantage of the Chinese market. He added that the company had to be there for the long-term and that was what it was doing now.

''We are investing today and planning to leverage that for the long-term.''