Tata Elxsi to hire 1,000     
June 11, 2008
Source:  REUTERS

MUMBAI: Software design services firm Tata Elxsi Ltd plans a capex of 450 million rupees and add up to 1,000 employees in 2008/09, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Madhukar Dev told reporters on Tuesday. 

The investment will be for two new development centres in Hyderabad and Coimbatore and to expand the Thiruvananthapuram facility, he said. The company also plans to take its headcount up to 4,500 at the end of the year from about 3,500 now, he added. 

It sees a higher growth this year compared to 2007/08, when it was impacted by the appreciation of the rupee against both the Japanese yen and the US dollar. "Last year we lost nearly 10 per cent due to the exchange rate fluctuations and we were not protected at all," Dev said. 

With its expanded facilities and hedging, it expects to improve upon its 30 per cent revenue growth last year, though he declined to quantify it. Tata Elxsi provides product design services, engineering design services, system integration and visual computing, which includes animation and visual effects. 

The company, which gets about a third of its revenues from Japan, sees revenues from animation and visual effects contribute about 20 percent of the revenues by 2010, from about 5 percent last year. "Visual computing revenues will grow more rapidly than others," Dev said. It has a three-film tie-up with Yash Raj Films, which is producing three animated feature films in partnership with Walt Disney 

The first of these is set to release in October. Tata Elxsi is setting up a design engineering studio in the UK, which will be operational in two months, Dev said. "We intend to replicate our near-shore centre in Japan. It will have an international design team, which will cater to our clients there." 

Of the 30 percent revenues from Europe, about 15 percent is from UK, where it has about 25 clients. It sees a 40-50 percent year-on-year growth in the UK, and this studio will strengthen its presence, he said. Product design contributed about 75 per cent to its revenues last year and would continue to be its mainstay with a focus on broadcasting, wireless networking and consumer electronics. Shares in Tata Elxsi closed down 2.9 percent at 201.60 rupees on the BSE.

New Cybernet centre in Chennai     
June 11 , 2008 
SOURCE: Business Line

Cybernet-SlashSupport (CSS), provider of tech support and remote infrastructure management services besides software testing and development, has set up its second network operating centre (NOC) in Chennai. The centre, dedicated to customers in US and Europe, will facilitate central monitoring and management of their IT infrastructure. This is expected to improve clients’ productivity, said Mr Sridhar Kulasekharan, Chief Operating Officer, in a press release. 

CSS currently manages mission critical applications running across 6,000 servers and 1,200 network devices. Its first NOC provides managed services to over 100 customers in the US and Asia Pacific region. The two NOCs can together house close to 200 engineers, the release said.

Ybrant close to buying US company     
June 11, 2008 
SOURCE: Business Line

Hyderabad, Ybrant Digital, a technology and marketing related services provider for Internet, is close to acquiring a US-based digital marketing company for about $100 plus million (over Rs 400 crore) shortly.

The company is sewing up a $50-million private equity deal and the rest is being funded through debt. The deal is structured in such a way that the pay out would be made over a year, Mr Suresh Reddy, Founder-Chairman of Ybarnt, told Business Line.

The company, earlier named Ybrant Technologies Ltd, had filed for Draft Red Herring prospectus to raise about Rs 200 crore through an initial public offer in India. However, with the market conditions currently not conducive, it has since withdrawn its application.

“As a company, Ybrant has had an acquisition-led growth. Thus far we have acquired four firms — Medios One, Oridian, AdDynamics and VoloMP. The merger process has been completed and operations restructured under one flagship brand. The company name has changed from Ybrant Technologies to Ybrant Digital that reflects the company’s core business,” Mr Reddy said.

Following the restructure process, the company’s US headquarters based in Palo Alto is being shifted to Los Angeles, a centre that the company added through the acquisition of AdDynamics.