MindTree buys Linc Software

Mid-sized IT services company MindTree Consulting has acquired Linc Software Services Private Limited in an undisclosed stock and cash deal.

The acquisition was announced on Thursday by MindTree Consulting's chairman and managing director Ashok Soota, who said the two investors in Linc -- ICF and Infinity -- will get cash, and its co-founders part cash and part stock.

He said the acquisition cost talked about between $10 million and $12 million in a section of the media was off the mark, and would not say if it was lower or higher.

MindTree, which currently has 2,200 employees, clocked revenue of $55 million in 2004-05 while Linc, with a headcount of over 220, logged $7 million.

"We (the combined entity) are looking at $90 million-plus revenue in the current financial year", Soota, also a former president of Confederation of Indian Industry, told reporters.

Company officials said the acquisition would enhance MindTree's presence in the application development and maintenance domains for IBM mid-range systems.

Bangalore-based Linc, which focuses on the areas of application development and maintenance, ERP product support and web development, has offices in the US, the UK,

Singapore, Switzerland and Australia.

Soota said the company planned to enter the markets in Switzerland and South-east Asia, and Linc's presence there would help matters. MindTree would enter the German market in the course of this year, he added.