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Even as the Wall Street is suffering a jolt over the collapse of leading investment bankers, there are unconfirmed reports that Satyam Computer Services Limited is seriously planning to buy the Indian back office of Lehman Brothers Holdings. The new report assumes great significance at the back drop of the reports that IT giant Wipro Technologies and Gurgaonbased knowledge process outsourcing firm Copal Partners have expressed interest in bidding for the USbased investment firm, which has already filed for bankruptcy protection causing finance jitters all over the world.
According to Business Standard, the US based investment banking firm is expected to close its captive unit at Powai in Mumbai by the end of this month. It has already asked the employees in Mumbai office to look for another job and they would be paid only for this month, which would be treated as a severance package.
When CyberMedia News contacted Satyam Computers, it refused to make any comment saying, We are in our quiet period and would not be able to respond to the queries.
Meanwhile, British bank Barclays PLC said that it had agreed to acquire Lehman Brothers North American investment banking and capital markets businesses for USD250 million in cash. Reports say it will also purchase Lehmans New York headquarters and its two data centers in New Jersey for USD1.5 billion.
But one will have to wait and see whether this would reduce the impact of the shock in the financial market.
Though the Indian IT firms say the financial earthquake in US will have no immediate impact over them, it will not be a smooth ride ahead for the techies, if the overall scenario is any indication. Cloud is looming large over the IT horizons.
It was only yesterday that HP had declared it would cut 24,600 jobs over the next three years, which amounts to nearly 8 per cent of HPs 320,000employee work force.
The Times of India had recently reported that Satyam Computer Services is planning to cut nearly 4,500 jobs in the near future. Satyam has a work force of 51,000 employees.
When asked how the US crisis is going to impact the IT sector in India, Wipro declined to respond to the question. The PR department of the company said this is the silent period going on for the company and it will not be able to comment anything now.
Since the global economic slowdown has reached its peak at the time of the annual appraisal of the employees, another possibility is that many employees in the lucrative IT and finance segments may not get any increment at all. And this is equivalent to getting a pink slip.
The US slowdown will also force the IT firms anchored in India to look for new markets. Satyam is reportedly looking at expanding its market in the Middle East, which is all poised to grow in terms of IT services spending.
The only ray of hope in this dark scenario is that the Indian rupee is still showing a downward trend against the US dollar, which may help the export segment. And Indian IT segment is all about export is the only reprieve, at least for the time being.
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