The rumors have been floating for a few weeks now. IBM plans to acquire Satyam (or at least a major stake in), the 4th largest Indian offshore player.
Satyam is strong in several manufacturing markets and has one of the better packaged application practices of the Indian firms. It has also done a poor job marketing itself compared to the other Indian firms and IBM would clearly turn that around. But IBM inconsistently positions its own growing India operations, so I suspect integration will be a challenge. And IBM will have to quit the double speak to customers about not being in India for lowered costs and reluctantly passing those along. It will also pressure Indian firms to step up their own western acquisitions to accelerate market share growth.
If the transaction goes through, it would dwarf recent Indian investment by western technology firms - EDS with investment in MphasiS, Cap Gemini with Kanbay and Oracle with i-Flex.
