AOL’s new Chief Executive Officer Tim Armstrong told employees today that job cuts are possible as he undertakes a 60-day review of the Internet company’s cost structure, a company spokeswoman said.
Armstrong said at a companywide meeting that he’s working on financial plans, and part of that process could include staff reductions, Tricia Primrose, a spokeswoman for AOL, said in an e-mail. She didn’t specify how many jobs may be eliminated.
After completing a 100-day review of AOL’s strategy, Armstrong said in an interview last week that he plans to overhaul advertising and develop more local Web sites to revive falling sales. Time Warner Inc. plans to spin off AOL, which employs about 7,000 people, into a separate, publicly traded company later this year.
Time Warner, based in New York, fell 30 cents to $27.58 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have gained 24 percent this year. The possible cuts were reported earlier by Silicon Alley Insider.
Monday, July 27, 2009
H1-B, NRIs
Open gates for foreign workers, Bill Gates tells US
Bill Gates, the first citizen of commercial mass computing, vouched for an open source US immigration policy, raised hands for India’s unique national ID project, and smiled aside the threat posed to his Windows home base by Google’s planned operating system as he embarked on his sixth visit to India, this time to receive an honour for his efforts in social work.
The co-founder of Microsoft and its current nonexecutive chairman told a CEO Forum on Friday that his firm would like to participate in the unique ID project, which envisages a biometric-based national ID for every Indian citizen.
Mr Gates also met Nandan Nilekani, the cofounder of Infosys, and the man the government has put in charge of rolling out the ID project. He said the project could help in areas such as immunisation of children to detect who’s left out of the process. “Banking and healthcare are two applications we would like to see on top of the list under the programme,” Mr Gates said.
On immigration, he reiterated his well-stated stand urging the US government to increase the number of foreign workers entering the US. “I have been speaking out against immigration restrictions in the US. Free exchange of talent is a very important thing,” Mr Gates, who requested the US Congress to reform immigration policies last year, told a press conference.
He also asked Indian companies to focus more on research, citing the low number of PhDs produced by the country. India produces about a quarter million engineering graduates and around 100 PhDs. The US, on the other hand, has 70,000 engineering graduates and 1,500 PhDs, over 250 of them from India.
“Companies need to be a big part of this. The IT industry in India has matured to a point where it (research ) can be on their agenda,” he said.
The potential threat posed by Google, the search engine behemoth that is now entering Microsoft’s mainstay operating systems platform, was “fun” , said Mr Gates who pointed out his own firms efforts at relaunching its search platform with its new search engine Bing that has made a dent in the market.
“Google has done a lot of good work but we think search should be dramatically better in the next 1-3 years. We have hired great people who are doing innovative work to make it more competitive,” he said. Mr Gates said search has changed from a list of top 10 links to a place where people go to organise a trip, buy a gift or learn something new.
Source: IndiaTimes
The co-founder of Microsoft and its current nonexecutive chairman told a CEO Forum on Friday that his firm would like to participate in the unique ID project, which envisages a biometric-based national ID for every Indian citizen.
Mr Gates also met Nandan Nilekani, the cofounder of Infosys, and the man the government has put in charge of rolling out the ID project. He said the project could help in areas such as immunisation of children to detect who’s left out of the process. “Banking and healthcare are two applications we would like to see on top of the list under the programme,” Mr Gates said.
On immigration, he reiterated his well-stated stand urging the US government to increase the number of foreign workers entering the US. “I have been speaking out against immigration restrictions in the US. Free exchange of talent is a very important thing,” Mr Gates, who requested the US Congress to reform immigration policies last year, told a press conference.
He also asked Indian companies to focus more on research, citing the low number of PhDs produced by the country. India produces about a quarter million engineering graduates and around 100 PhDs. The US, on the other hand, has 70,000 engineering graduates and 1,500 PhDs, over 250 of them from India.
“Companies need to be a big part of this. The IT industry in India has matured to a point where it (research ) can be on their agenda,” he said.
The potential threat posed by Google, the search engine behemoth that is now entering Microsoft’s mainstay operating systems platform, was “fun” , said Mr Gates who pointed out his own firms efforts at relaunching its search platform with its new search engine Bing that has made a dent in the market.
“Google has done a lot of good work but we think search should be dramatically better in the next 1-3 years. We have hired great people who are doing innovative work to make it more competitive,” he said. Mr Gates said search has changed from a list of top 10 links to a place where people go to organise a trip, buy a gift or learn something new.
Source: IndiaTimes
HCL, Infosys, IT market, Outsourcing, Recession, TCS, Wipro
Global IT contracts dip 22% in First Half
Even in a recession-hit market where clients are cutting outsourcing budgets, Indian firms such as TCS, Infy, Wipro, HCL and Tata Communications have won large outsourcing deals this year placing them among the top 10 global service providers — on contract value terms.
Even though the total contract value of awarded outsourcing deals fell by 22% to $40.2 billion in the first six months of this year, Indian tech firms continued to compete neck and neck with the global biggies such as IBM, Accenture, HP/EDS, CSC, shows data from TPI. TPI is the largest sourcing data and advisory firm and measures commercial outsourcing contracts valued at $25 million or more.
Indian firms dominated the information technology outsourcing (ITO) segment ($33.2 billion) split into application, development & maintenance (ADM) and infrastructure segments.
Among the desi firms, the top deal winners were Cognizant, Infosys, HCL, TCS and Wipro featuring in the ADM section. HCL and Wipro were again listed among the top 10 infrastructure deal winners, TPI said. “Retail, diversified financials, transport, and network telecom services provided strength to the ITO market. TCS was the top vendor to win deals in three of these markets, while Infosys appeared as one of the top vendors in the Americas and the APAC region,” HSBC IT analyst Yogesh Aggarwal said.
Tata Com — only Indian firm among network service bigwigs such as AT&T, BT, Ericsson and Nokia Siemens — grabbed a place amongst top 10 club in a segment where deals worth $13.4 billion were awarded till June.
While the broader BPO market remained weak, experts believe Indian vendors relied on client mining, rather than winning new mega-accounts. Infy, that employs 16,700 people in its BPO division, was among the top 10 BPO service providers in the H1 of 2009, wherein globally contracts worth $7 billion were awarded to the likes of Capita, Perot Systems, Xerox, RR Donnelley and Johnson Controls.
Even though the total contract value of awarded outsourcing deals fell by 22% to $40.2 billion in the first six months of this year, Indian tech firms continued to compete neck and neck with the global biggies such as IBM, Accenture, HP/EDS, CSC, shows data from TPI. TPI is the largest sourcing data and advisory firm and measures commercial outsourcing contracts valued at $25 million or more.
Indian firms dominated the information technology outsourcing (ITO) segment ($33.2 billion) split into application, development & maintenance (ADM) and infrastructure segments.
Among the desi firms, the top deal winners were Cognizant, Infosys, HCL, TCS and Wipro featuring in the ADM section. HCL and Wipro were again listed among the top 10 infrastructure deal winners, TPI said. “Retail, diversified financials, transport, and network telecom services provided strength to the ITO market. TCS was the top vendor to win deals in three of these markets, while Infosys appeared as one of the top vendors in the Americas and the APAC region,” HSBC IT analyst Yogesh Aggarwal said.
Tata Com — only Indian firm among network service bigwigs such as AT&T, BT, Ericsson and Nokia Siemens — grabbed a place amongst top 10 club in a segment where deals worth $13.4 billion were awarded till June.
While the broader BPO market remained weak, experts believe Indian vendors relied on client mining, rather than winning new mega-accounts. Infy, that employs 16,700 people in its BPO division, was among the top 10 BPO service providers in the H1 of 2009, wherein globally contracts worth $7 billion were awarded to the likes of Capita, Perot Systems, Xerox, RR Donnelley and Johnson Controls.
IT market
Oracle to buy software maker GoldenGate
Oracle Corp, the world's No. 3 software maker, plans to buy privately held GoldenGate Software, beefing up its portfolio of technology that helps companies manipulate information in databases.
The companies did not disclose financial terms of the transaction, which Oracle announced on Thursday. Oracle has spent more than $34 billion buying about three dozen companies over the past five years, the bulk of then private companies like GoldenGate. While Oracle does not release the terms of most small transactions, Oracle spent up to $1.2 billion for such deals in its most recent fiscal year.
The software giant is getting ready to close its $7.4 billion acquisition of hardware maker Sun Microsystems Inc, pending antitrust approval by regulators in the United States and Europe.
San Francisco-based GoldenGate offers several products, including software that helps businesses analyze large quantities of information in databases and programs that help banks detect fraudulent activities.
GoldenGate has more than 500 customers, including Bank of America Corp, Comcast Corp, MGM Mirage and Visa Inc.
Shares in Redwood City, California-based Oracle rose 2.5 percent to $22.31, in line with a gain in the Nasdaq Composite Index.
The companies did not disclose financial terms of the transaction, which Oracle announced on Thursday. Oracle has spent more than $34 billion buying about three dozen companies over the past five years, the bulk of then private companies like GoldenGate. While Oracle does not release the terms of most small transactions, Oracle spent up to $1.2 billion for such deals in its most recent fiscal year.
The software giant is getting ready to close its $7.4 billion acquisition of hardware maker Sun Microsystems Inc, pending antitrust approval by regulators in the United States and Europe.
San Francisco-based GoldenGate offers several products, including software that helps businesses analyze large quantities of information in databases and programs that help banks detect fraudulent activities.
GoldenGate has more than 500 customers, including Bank of America Corp, Comcast Corp, MGM Mirage and Visa Inc.
Shares in Redwood City, California-based Oracle rose 2.5 percent to $22.31, in line with a gain in the Nasdaq Composite Index.
Cost cutting, Layoffs in India, Recession
Recession-hit Bangalore techies settle for low-paying jobs
Till a few months ago, IT professional TV George was earning Rs70,000 per month, plus perks. But after losing his high-paying job, and being unemployed for three months, George, 31, has started giving tuitions in mathematics and physics to aspiring engineering students in his neighbourhood.
"Now, I am earning Rs15,000 per month. It's been hard. I got married only a few months before losing my job. So, when I lost my job, I was in a difficult position. Thankfully, I had some savings. With the savings, I am paying my rent and for a few other necessities," George, who was employed with a top US IT company, said.
"After losing my job, I tried my best to get a new job. But I remained unlucky. So to help run my home, I decided to give coaching classes to aspiring engineering students."
George is not alone. Recession has hit the IT sector in Bangalore, with scores of techies losing their jobs. Some have been forced to take up low-paying jobs as they wait to bounce back when the recession ends.
Dipankar Dutta, 27, working with an Indian IT company as software engineer, lost his job almost eight months ago.
Today he has a job, but as a content writer in a tech firm.
"Thankfully, writing has been my forte. So, I landed this job of a content writer. Otherwise I would have been in a soup. Since I cannot afford to stay in Bangalore without a job, I compromised and settled for the new job with a much lower pay package," said Dutta.
Scores of IT and ITES professionals in Bangalore have lost their jobs in recent times, an effect of the global economic meltdown. But there is no precise count of the numbers.
According to the latest employment and business outlook report by Bangalore-based staffing firm Teamlease, at 23%, the attrition rate in this city is higher than in any other city in India.
The report was based on interviews with HR heads, CEOs and senior executives of 495 companies in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune.
"The city accounted for the highest attrition rate. IT accounts for over 80% of the city's total labour pool. The attrition rate was 23% in the last quarter, against the previous quarter's 16%. Much of the attrition could be involuntary attrition (or layoffs)," Teamlease general manager Surabhi Mathur-Gandhi said.
India's Silicon Valley has seen thousands of people getting pink slips in recent months. And many more are under the threat of losing their jobs.
"It's painful to lose your job, in today's expensive world. Those who have lost their jobs are desperate now, thus they are settling for low paying jobs," Karthik Shekhar, general secretary of UNITES-Professionals, an unrecognised union of IT/Call Centre/BPO employees, said.
"Every day we meet young men and women who have lost their IT jobs recently. All they want is a job. But getting a job in the IT sector is very difficult. So, they have no option but to settle for jobs outside their fields and that too with low paying packages," Shekhar added.
"It's encouraging that today's youths are ready to move ahead in their lives. Instead of waiting for the economy to revive, IT professionals have started exploring other fields and this is a positive sign," said BN Gangadhar, professor of psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (Nimhans), Bangalore.
Mohammed Khan, a trained software engineer, told IANS: "Initially it was difficult, but I am happy with my choice. After losing my job with an IT firm, now I am working as a sales executive. I am hoping the economy will recover soon and all the techies who have lost their jobs will get new jobs in their field."
Source: TheTimesofIndia
"Now, I am earning Rs15,000 per month. It's been hard. I got married only a few months before losing my job. So, when I lost my job, I was in a difficult position. Thankfully, I had some savings. With the savings, I am paying my rent and for a few other necessities," George, who was employed with a top US IT company, said.
"After losing my job, I tried my best to get a new job. But I remained unlucky. So to help run my home, I decided to give coaching classes to aspiring engineering students."
George is not alone. Recession has hit the IT sector in Bangalore, with scores of techies losing their jobs. Some have been forced to take up low-paying jobs as they wait to bounce back when the recession ends.
Dipankar Dutta, 27, working with an Indian IT company as software engineer, lost his job almost eight months ago.
Today he has a job, but as a content writer in a tech firm.
"Thankfully, writing has been my forte. So, I landed this job of a content writer. Otherwise I would have been in a soup. Since I cannot afford to stay in Bangalore without a job, I compromised and settled for the new job with a much lower pay package," said Dutta.
Scores of IT and ITES professionals in Bangalore have lost their jobs in recent times, an effect of the global economic meltdown. But there is no precise count of the numbers.
According to the latest employment and business outlook report by Bangalore-based staffing firm Teamlease, at 23%, the attrition rate in this city is higher than in any other city in India.
The report was based on interviews with HR heads, CEOs and senior executives of 495 companies in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune.
"The city accounted for the highest attrition rate. IT accounts for over 80% of the city's total labour pool. The attrition rate was 23% in the last quarter, against the previous quarter's 16%. Much of the attrition could be involuntary attrition (or layoffs)," Teamlease general manager Surabhi Mathur-Gandhi said.
India's Silicon Valley has seen thousands of people getting pink slips in recent months. And many more are under the threat of losing their jobs.
"It's painful to lose your job, in today's expensive world. Those who have lost their jobs are desperate now, thus they are settling for low paying jobs," Karthik Shekhar, general secretary of UNITES-Professionals, an unrecognised union of IT/Call Centre/BPO employees, said.
"Every day we meet young men and women who have lost their IT jobs recently. All they want is a job. But getting a job in the IT sector is very difficult. So, they have no option but to settle for jobs outside their fields and that too with low paying packages," Shekhar added.
"It's encouraging that today's youths are ready to move ahead in their lives. Instead of waiting for the economy to revive, IT professionals have started exploring other fields and this is a positive sign," said BN Gangadhar, professor of psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (Nimhans), Bangalore.
Mohammed Khan, a trained software engineer, told IANS: "Initially it was difficult, but I am happy with my choice. After losing my job with an IT firm, now I am working as a sales executive. I am hoping the economy will recover soon and all the techies who have lost their jobs will get new jobs in their field."
Source: TheTimesofIndia
BPO
Genpact to bid for UID project
India’s largest business process outsourcing (BPO) firm, Genpact, plans to bid for the union government’s Unique Identity (UID) project and is likely to enter a tie-up with IT players who can work on the hardware aspect.
“Other than the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) segment, government is a key sector for Genpact in India. We will be focused more on the process optimisation aspect than on the IT. But since there is a small aspect of hardware involved in the government deals, we think we are capable of handling this, as well as get into tie-ups if required,” said Harpreet Duggal, Senior Vice President and Business Leader India, Genpact.
The NYSE-listed BPO forayed into the domestic market nine months ago and has already signed four customers from the banking and finance and travel segments. The company is in the final stages of signing three to four deals. It serves customers from its centres in Jaipur and Hyderabad and has plans to further expand into tier-II cities.
As a part of its strategy to expand in the domestic market, Duggal said the company will introduce its international learning to the market and the operations would also be different from its international operations. “In total, we have 1,000 people working on the domestic market. This includes the sales and marketing. But we will leverage our talent base for winning market share in India,” said Duggal.
Like its international focus, Genpact will focus on BFSI, telecom, healthcare and government. Duggal further stated: “Small and medium enterprises (SME) will be another focus area. We think a lot of hosted solutions that Genpact has in the finance and accounting space and healthcare can be used in the domestic market also.”
Mudit Saxena, Senior VP and Business Leader heading the BFSI focus said that is not a driver in India for firms to outsource. “Rather, the discussion that we have been having with some of the banks are on outcome-based models. And a shift from fixed to variable cost,” he added.
The Nasscom-McKinsey Perspective 2020 report says the domestic outsourcing opportunity is expected to expand from $26 billion in 2008 to $90-100 billion by 2020, a compounded annual growth rate of 11 per cent. Wherein, BFSI and public services will account for 40 per cent of the addressable market. Among the business services, call centres, BFSI non-voice services and finance and accounting (F&A) will comprise 55 per cent.
“Other than the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) segment, government is a key sector for Genpact in India. We will be focused more on the process optimisation aspect than on the IT. But since there is a small aspect of hardware involved in the government deals, we think we are capable of handling this, as well as get into tie-ups if required,” said Harpreet Duggal, Senior Vice President and Business Leader India, Genpact.
The NYSE-listed BPO forayed into the domestic market nine months ago and has already signed four customers from the banking and finance and travel segments. The company is in the final stages of signing three to four deals. It serves customers from its centres in Jaipur and Hyderabad and has plans to further expand into tier-II cities.
As a part of its strategy to expand in the domestic market, Duggal said the company will introduce its international learning to the market and the operations would also be different from its international operations. “In total, we have 1,000 people working on the domestic market. This includes the sales and marketing. But we will leverage our talent base for winning market share in India,” said Duggal.
Like its international focus, Genpact will focus on BFSI, telecom, healthcare and government. Duggal further stated: “Small and medium enterprises (SME) will be another focus area. We think a lot of hosted solutions that Genpact has in the finance and accounting space and healthcare can be used in the domestic market also.”
Mudit Saxena, Senior VP and Business Leader heading the BFSI focus said that is not a driver in India for firms to outsource. “Rather, the discussion that we have been having with some of the banks are on outcome-based models. And a shift from fixed to variable cost,” he added.
The Nasscom-McKinsey Perspective 2020 report says the domestic outsourcing opportunity is expected to expand from $26 billion in 2008 to $90-100 billion by 2020, a compounded annual growth rate of 11 per cent. Wherein, BFSI and public services will account for 40 per cent of the addressable market. Among the business services, call centres, BFSI non-voice services and finance and accounting (F&A) will comprise 55 per cent.
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