Infosys seeking to buy US healthcare, services firm
14 Sep 2011
Infosys Ltd, India's second-largest software exporter, is said to be in advanced talks to buy a US technology firm.
The company has refused to confirm the development, though it has been widely reported in the media. ET Now puts the size of the deal at $450-500 million.
Top officials of Infosys are in the US to supervise the due-diligence process.
The target company has not been pinpointed, but ET says it operates in the public services and healthcare sectors and has revenues of over $300 million but less than $500 million.
Analysts see this as Infosys adding a new 'vertical' to its business - public services and healthcare is an area where it has not yet ventured, though its software competitor Cognizant already has a strong presence in this field.
If the buyout goes through, it will be the biggest acquisition in Infosys history. Its acquisitions in the past, like McCamish and Expert Information Systems, were worth under $50 million. The last time Infosys made a bid for a buyout was for Axon, which was eventually acquired by rival HCL.
Last month, newly appointed chairman K V Kamath reassured shareholders that Infosys, which has appeared somewhat unsettled in recent months, will embrace change wholeheartedly while preserving the ethos of the company's founder and chairman emeritus, N R Narayana Murthy.
Kamath had suggested a new openness to acquisitions, re-orientation of strategy and radical innovations for productivity increases.
