UK banks to shift 2 lakh jobs to India
London: Notwithstanding opposition from various quarters over outsourcing to India, major British banks and insurance companies were planning to shift up to two lakh administrative, processing and clerical jobs to India, a leading recruitment agency has said.

Adecco, the recruitment firm, has predicted the transfer of 100,000 jobs in call centres alone from Britain to India by 2008, but many union officials believe the final figure could be twice as big. Barclays, Lloyds TSB and Prudential are all experimenting with overseas operations and have plans to move more staff abroad. By the end of this year, HSBC will have moved a further 3,600 jobs - in addition to the 5,400 it has already exported - to offices in China, India and Malaysia. "Figures like a couple of hundred thousand have been floated. That may be excessive, but we're talking tens of thousands potentially being exported. People are looking seriously at clerical to back-office transaction processing, as well as value-added jobs, and saying where else can we do them more cheaply," Phil Middleton, head of retail banking at Ernst and Young said.
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Cisco wins injunction against Chinese firm
San Jose: In a legal victory for Cisco Systems, a federal judge ordered China's largest telecommunications equipment maker to stop distributing products that include Cisco's proprietary technology. The preliminary injunction on Friday by US District Judge T John Ward in Marshall, Texas, bars Huawei Technologies Co from selling, importing, exporting or using software that is derived or developed from a part of Cisco's operating system. In addition, Ward barred Huawei from employing anyone who has worked with the code in question as it develops its own software. Huawei was also ordered to stop distributing user manuals or help files that contain portions copied from Cisco's documentation.
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Corel agrees to $98 mn takeover bid from Vector
Toronto: Software maker Corel Corp on Friday said that it had agreed to accept a long awaited takeover bid from Vector Capital, a deal that would end its often volatile run as a public company. Ottawa-based Corel, best known for its WordPerfect and CorelDraw word processing and graphics packages, said that the San Francisco-based venture capital firm would offer $1.05 a share in cash for all its common shares, making the bid worth about $97.6 million. Vector is already Corel's largest shareholder, holding preferred shares that, if converted, would represent about 20 per cent of the common stock. The agreement was struck one day after Corel said that there was a high likelihood it would agree to be taken over, but for less than the $1.10 a share it originally demanded. The Thursday announcement sent its shares tumbling. The possibility of a deal arose in March, when Corel said it had signed an agreement with Vector allowing it to conduct due diligence and make a formal takeover offer. Corel said that it would recommend shareholders accept a bid of at least $1.10 a share.
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Oracle move pathetic: Conway
New York: After Oracle Corporation on Friday launched a $5.1 billion takeover bid for archrival PeopleSoft Inc., in a pitched battle for dominance among struggling software makers, PeopleSoft CEO Craig Conway slammed Oracle's proposal, calling it nothing but a disruptive tactic, and bankers and lawyers questioned whether antitrust regulators would allow Oracle to go ahead with acquiring PeopleSoft. "It was like Larry was driving by, spotted a really nice wedding in progress, crashed it with a shotgun and said this bride's going to marry me at the end of a barrel," Conway said of Oracle boss Larry Ellison in a telephone interview.
"It's a pathetic tactic even by Oracle standards," said Conway, who once famously described Oracle as 'sociopathic'. PeopleSoft said it would consider the offer, as required by law, and advised its shareholders to wait before taking any action.
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Outsourcing curbs will be limited, India assured
Washington: American lawmakers and officials have allayed India's apprehensions over curbs on outsourcing of jobs from US to India as also on issuance of visas to its professionals. A delegation of Indo-US Parliamentary Forum was assured by US Congress members and officials that any damage to India from restrictions on outsourcing sought to be imposed by half a dozen states would be limited. The assurance, given to the Forum's co-chairmen Kapil Sibal and V P S Badnore, comes in the backdrop of reports that several states will press ahead with laws to ban outsourcing of jobs, especially in the IT sector because of unemployment and discontent at home. But such laws are unlikely, the Indians were reportedly told by the lawmakers, as states have jurisdiction only with respect to employment offered by state governments. Private companies are governed by Federal laws, where legislators will take into account US economic interests and the views of US business and industry.
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SEC considers cracking down on rating firms
Washington: US market regulator Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is taking a new look at rating agencies, now that their judgment has come to be questioned after the bankruptcy of many firms they had highly commended, a report said on Saturday. SEC might either get out of the business of regulating credit rating firms or clamp down on an industry that has failed to anticipate some of the worst corporate meltdowns, the Commission said in a report. The SEC report wonders whether the agency should remove its national designation of a select number of credit-rating agencies. The government imprimature, bestowed on four firms, The Washington Post reported, has drawn complaints from other credit-rating agencies, which say that there are no procedures, guidelines or explanation from the SEC about how to get that national designation.
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