Satyam door opened to foreign bids: IBM, Oracle make queries

The government is keen to get a foreign suitor for Satyam. Minister for corporate affairs Prem Chand Gupta said in Hyderabad on Sunday the company’s government-appointed board has formally asked foreign companies to also bid.

While the minister did not disclose names, it is learnt that officials from IBM have met Satyam’s management team this month, to ascertain how long the restatement of accounts would take for the Indian firm. Oracle is also learnt to have sent some questionnaires to the Hyderabad-based IT company that imploded after its erstwhile chairman B Ramalinga Raju said he had engineered a Rs 7,800-crore accounting fraud in the firm.

The minister’s statement means the government is keen to get a very strong valuation for Satyam than was thought so far, with domestic engineering company L&T seen as the front runner. It already has a 12% stake in the IT company.

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India emerges a leader in green IT potential

India is a world leader in green IT potential, according to a recently released global enterprise survey. Indian respondents scored over respondents from 10 other countries in expecting to pay 5% or more for green technology if its benefits for the environment and return on investment (ROI) are proven. The rest of the countries lag because they scored either on expectation to pay at least 5% or more or preferring green technology with proven ROI—and not both.

Green technology, the survey explained to respondents, is technology with efficient power consumption, recyclable/reusable packaging, recycling offers for older equipment, use of non-toxic materials, or making investments in future green concepts such as alternative materials.

The survey was conducted by Green Factor, which researches and highlights green marketing opportunities. It’s a joint initiative between marketing intelligence company Strategic Oxygen, GCI Group and Cohn & Wolfe, which are from the WPP family of communication companies.

“Initially, it seems counter-intuitive that India would be number one,” explained Paul Walker, president, GCI Group, in the green enterprise report, “but this is a country experiencing a high-rate of IT investment and data centre growth—coupled with brown-outs. It makes sense that IT decision makers there would be more sensitive to environmental challenges and increasingly supportive of growing their green IT solutions.”

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Cultural and technical integration remains a challenge for Hewlett-Packard: experts

As global IT player Hewlett-Packard(HP) takes over Electronic Data Systems (EDS) for $13.9 billion, experts in the industry are clearly concerned over the synergy of the two giants. EDS and HP have largely different cultures, EDS largely looks into products maturity, replicable transformation solutions, and scalable delivery methods. While on the other hand, HP's core still resides in the legend of 'the garage' in Palo Alto, where its founders turned engineering acumen into a global business.

Pradeep Udhas, head - markets, KPMG, says, "It's a huge acquisition and the integration of the companies will be a big challenge,as both of them have quite a different culture."Interestingly, industry observers feel that if HP overcomes the cultural challenges, it will give significant scale to HP services and the company will become much more competitive against IBM. The combined entity will have services in hardware, software, services, BPO, and R&D. EDS has a presence in about 70 countries and has one of the most robust service delivery engines in the business. Udhas adds,"Globally,EDS has a huge number of government clients, especially in the US. HP will now be able to leverage on these existing clients."

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