I just had to chuckle when I saw the headline in the tech section of today’s FT: Infosys plans international acquisitions. The article quoted Infosys CEO SD Shibulal as “definitely looking for inorganic expansion”, presumably to make up for recent lacklustre organic growth (see Infosys misses Q4 revenue target). But as they say in the classics, if I had a Rupee every time the media (notably in India) reported Infosys’ acquisition ambitions I’d be, well, not rich, but carrying around a lot of coins in my pocket.
The evidence suggests that Infosys management has almost a pathological aversion to M&A. I count only four in the past decade (see OffshoreViews Q2 2011), the most recent being the A$37m acquisition of Aussie BPO consultancy, Portland Group last December. None have been of any substantial size and none have been in Europe. Indeed, three are in Australasia, the other in the US. This is not for lack of funds – Infosys has over $4b ...