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IBM has increased its
presence in India's IT services sector through
the acquisition of privately-held Daksh
e-Services. It has also scooped up the business
continuity services unit left behind at
Schlumberger after most of SchlumbergerSema
was sold to Atos Origin. Details of the
two transactions were not disclosed, but
it is believed that IBM paid around $170
million (£96 million) for Daksh, which employs
6,000 people across India. The acquisition
of Schlumberger'’s business continuity unit
– which has operations in Europe and the
US,and around 750 clients worldwide – puts
IBM on a par with specialist business continuity
supplier Sungard and other major players
such as HP and EDS.
Xansa has won a £75 million
IT transformation contract at the Office
of National Statistics (ONS), adding a further
government scalp to existing projects at
the Department for Work and Pensions and
the Learning and Skills Council. The ONS
– formed in 1996 from the merger of the
Central Statistical Office and the Office
of Population Censuses and Surveys – is
intent on transforming itself into an e-business
with an integrated, enterprise-wide information
systems architecture. Xansa will provide
the systems to support this modernisation
programme.
Technology integrator
Morse is reaching further into the services
and consultancy market through the acquisition
of City management consultancy CSTIM. Morse
will pay £5.9 million cash for the investment
management specialist that turned in a 2003
pre-tax profit of £1.1 million on turnover
of £7 million, and has grown to 60 staff
since 1998.
IBM, bellwether of the
IT services market, has reported a modest
gain in its first-quarter financials, dispelling
hopes of pent-up demand waiting to be unleashed.
IBM Global Services achieved a 9% increase
in revenues to $11.1 billion (£6.3 billion)
for the first three months of the year,
but adjusted for currency fluctuations this
advance was knocked back to 1%. The IT services
provider signed contracts valued at more
than $10 billion in the quarter, ending
with an impressive backlog of $120 billion
worth of business.
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