Germany’s T-Systems poised to finalise outsourcing deal with Philips: report

Deutsche Telekom's corporate-customer unit, T-Systems, a global information and communications technology provider with operations in India, is close to finalising an outsourcing deal with Philips, said to worth several hundred millions euros.

Maarten de Vries, a member of Philips group management committee, had told the The Economic Times in an interview last week, "Philips will announce a new outsourcing contract with T-Systems, a European service provider, this week."

But the T-Systems spokesman cautioned there were was still work to be done and declined to give details on a timeline, saying only, "We're confident it will come to a conclusion."

Frankfurt-based T-Systems, which had generated revenue of around €9.3 billion in 2008, has been struggling like other global IT service providers due to the recession in most counties, where it operates.

It competes with the IT consulting division of Armonk-based computer giant IBM and Paris, France-based information technology company Atos Origin, SA.

Employing around 46,000 people worldwide, T-Systems had undertaken a major restructuring in 2007 to bring down costs, axing nearly 3,700 people. But the number of employees remained the same after it absorbed the employees of airport-IT consulting services company, AirIT International GmbH,  which it acquired in 2006.