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Wipro close to striking US deal

Leading Indian infotech company Wipro is close to striking a strategic alliance with either of the two US-based software consulting firms -- Sapient Corp or Keane Inc, the Financial Express newspaper said on Wednesday.

The unsourced report, based on market talk, said merchant bankers had indicated that the deal which could be an acquisition through a stock swap, could be worth over $1 billion.

Both Wipro and Sapient had no comment to offer the paper said, adding that there was no reply from Keane.

Wipro officials were not immediately available for comment.

Wipro listed on the New York Stock Exchange last October with an issue of American Depositary Shares and cited possible acquisitions as a reason to raise cash.

Wipro's Chairman Azim Premji had said in April that Wipro would go in for its overseas acquisition only after the market uncertainty had ended.

Vice-Chairman Vivek Paul had acknowledged that valuations of consultancy firms that Wipro looked to buy had come down, but that the company would wait for the market dust to settle.

He said Wipro wanted to hook the acquired firm's marketing and sales expertise to Wipro's software delivery skills.

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Internet consulting firm Sapient expects wider-than expected losses in the April-June quarter, but says it has enough cash and investments, worth about $262 million to ride out the US slowdown.

Boston-based software consultant Keane is restructuring to focus on its core business consulting, e-commerce services and application development business.

Wipro's shares were 2.89 per cent up in Wednesday morning deals at Rs 1598.95 at the Bombay Stock Exchange while the benchmark exchange index was up 0.99 per cent.

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