IT major Infosys Technologies is the second most profitable software firm in the world after Microsoft, Infosys chairman and chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy said on Thursday.

Asserting that Infosys was close to becoming a $1-billion company, he said it had 'given a guidance of $965 million to $982 million and profits of $235 to $245 million during the current fiscal.

"In that sense, we are the second most profitable company in the entire world in software after Microsoft," Murthy said at the global technology conference on "Leading the World: Building a Technology Tiger" organised by the Stanford Asia Technology Initiative as part of the first Stanford alumni meet in India.

Nearly 100 Stanford alumni, faculty and students are attending the conference by ATI, a student initiative to build a bridge between Stanford and Asia.

Charting out the progress of the Nasdaq-listed major, he said Infosys grew from being a $3.9-million, 200-people firm in 1991-92 to $753-million with profits of $195 million in 2002-03.

Murthy said the real value for the company was its people, who were the best.

Infosys, he said, selected the best 5,509 people last fiscal from about 614,000 application and the attrition rate of the company was at 6.9 per cent, half of the industry average.