India's IT services industry is witnessing a surge in mergers and acquisitions, particularly among mid-cap companies, as AI-led pricing pressure and macroeconomic uncertainty compel firms to seek scale, capabilities, and broader market reach. This trend is exemplified by the recent merger of Happiest Minds Technologies and ITC Infotech, aiming to offer end-to-end solutions and compete for larger transformation programmes.
Indian IT companies are experiencing a growing trend towards outcome-based pricing models, moving away from traditional time and material or fixed-price contracts, as artificial intelligence reshapes client engagement and deal structures.
N Chandrasekaran's exit marks a major shift for TCS, leaving its leadership to navigate AI disruption without the group chairman's deep expertise.
'Wipro's challenge is not lack of ideas. In fact, some of its recent structural moves are arguably bolder than peers.' 'The problem is proving it can operationalise these bets faster and more consistently.'
OpenAI and Anthropic are not simply enabling new software capabilities, they are moving directly into enterprise execution, workflow ownership, and decision orchestration.
Wipro, India's fourth-largest IT services company, has secured an eight-year deal with Singapore-based Olam group, valued at over $1 billion, and will also acquire Olam's IT and digital services arm, Mindsprint, for $375 million, marking one of its largest contracts to date.
Indian IT services companies are set to significantly increase their acquisition spending to $6.5-7 billion this year, up from $5 billion last year, as they seek to boost revenue and capabilities in areas like Cloud, data, enterprise platforms, and AI amidst a challenging economic environment.
Indian information technology (IT) services companies reported lacklustre growth in the second quarter, at a time when the macroeconomic environment did not deteriorate further. HCLTech emerged the best performer among India's top six IT services firms with a constant-currency growth rate of 4.6 per cent, even though uncertainties continued to persist.
The 15-year agreement will see Infosys develop a next-generation, data-driven workforce management platform to replace the existing electronic staff record (ESR) system, which annually manages a 55 billion payroll for 1.9 million NHS employees.
The US remains the largest market for IT outsourcing, and for Indian giants TCS, Infosys and Wipro, it contributes around 40 per cent of their top line.
'Advanced skills is such a broad spectrum that a simple prompt engineer to a critical upper end LLM developer are clubbed under one.' 'In addition, some include their non-technical employees who can use AI tools under this talent base.'
'It is good to have the H1-B visa option but if tomorrow things happen to change, it is not the end of the world situation.'
'Keeping a bench increases cost. If you keep a bench, the skills may not remain relevant.' 'In the future, bench strength will literally be zero.'
French information technology (IT) and consulting services major Capgemini on Monday said it would acquire Mumbai-headquartered WNS for $3.3 billion in cash. This could be one of the largest merger & acquisition deals in the IT services and business process management sector.
Some major contracts coming up for renewal include TCS' deals with Star Alliance, a consortium of airlines based in Germany, and Nielsen; Infosys' deals with GE Appliances and Daimler; HCLTech's with UK-based life insurer Chesnara; Wipro's with German electric utility company E.ON and Petrobras of Brazil; and Tech Mahindra's with Circle Health.
Wipro has once again chosen to bet on an insider who has grown through the ranks to lead the company. Srini Pallia has spent over three-decades at Wipro and it's the only company he has ever worked with. Till now, Pallia was heading the Americas-1 unit.
'The race is now on for Indian IT firms to develop their AI prowess and focus on a software-first approach to services as the people element becomes more complicated with Trump's expected new regulations.'
The writing has been on the wall for some time. Exodus of senior leadership and growth behind its peers are reasons that have prompted Thierry Delaporte, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Wipro to resign, analysts said. Delaporte, Wipro's seventh CEO, also resigned without completing his five-year term, like his predecessor Abidali Neemuchwala decided to end his tenure prematurely in 2020. Phil Fersht, HFS Research CEO and chief analyst believes the change in leadership was at least six months overdue.
Trouble started brewing after Cognizant announced that Ravi Kumar, former Infosys president, would take over as the Nasdaq-listed company's CEO.
Software services major Wipro on Wednesday said its BPO has been rated among the top global Finance and Accounting (F&A) service providers by analyst firm HfS Research.
Morgan Motor has banked on sleek designs and small production for a century.
Experts, however, are of the opinion that a world manned mostly by bots is still some time away. Also, new jobs -- of bot builders and supervisors -- will emerge with time.
Sixteen major contracts worth nearly $14 billion to be renewed by June 2018 but uncertainty looms large.
Some of external candidates being considered for the post of CEO include Bhaskar Ghosh of Accenture, Ritesh Idnani of Tech Mahindra, Ravi Kumar S of Infosys, and Nitin Rakesh of Mphasis, among others.
C Vijayakumar, the reticent chief executive of HCL Technologies, India's third-largest IT services firm, was recently appointed managing director, succeeding the founder, Shiv Nadar. Back in October 2016, when CVK, as he is popularly called within and outside of HCL, was named CEO, it had been somewhat of a surprise - his elevation being the result of his predecessor, Anant Gupta, suddenly stepping down to "pursue personal interests". CVK, 53, has since taken the firm from under $7 billion to over $10 billion in revenue.
TCS, Infosys and others are banking on automation to protect their turf in the US, but building a successful revenue model around it may prove difficult
Clients are seen realigning their tech strategy by moving works from own captives to third-party service providers which is mostly benefiting to large companies such as Infosys, TCS, Wipro or HCL Technologies.
Wipro has been quite aggressive among Indian IT services companies in acquisitions as a strategy to buy the capabilities in emerging technologies.
He had said the sector was running on a treadmill of lowering costs
The strategy of returning cash to shareholders through stock purchases could hinder their digital expansion plans
Indian IT major HCL Technologies will provide training for three months to 100 students each in its Lucknow and Madurai campuses.
TCS plans to build ignio as a standalone company.
Over the last years, taking the helm at Infosys has always had a strong resemblance with taking a roller-coaster ride
In the last couple of months, the IT and BPO space has seen a big uptick in M&A activities, with companies merging with other entities to become bigger players.
With clients increasingly looking at cost optimisation by passing on the risks to the IT vendors and IT services players demanding longer tenure deals to hedge their risks, a mix of these two factors are giving rise to large deals coming up in the market with a lot of strings attached.
According to Nasscom, engineering services exports had grown at 13 per cent in 2017 compared to six per cent rise in IT services exports and eight per cent in business process management (BPM). It had also recorded the highest growth in the last three years, reports Debasis Mohapatra.
ignio has more than 75 patents filed in the artificial intelligence, machine-learning and intelligent-automation space
The US president's stance on immigration could lead to a change in H1B visa rules.
All major Indian IT services providers are keenly watching US President Donald Trump's potential actions on immigration law. Ayan Pramanik reports.
Most large companies have curbed their hiring plans in 2018-19 because they continue to invest in digital technologies.
