Texas Software Company Buys Indian Outsourcing Firm

BANGALORE, India (AP) -- A U.S.-based software company has bought an Indian outsourcing firm, a company official said Thursday, the second such sale this week.

Details of the deal between Adea Solutions, headquartered in Dallas, and Bangalore-based Netkraft were expected to be announced later Thursday.

Netkraft Chief Executive Officer Anand Sudarshan said Adea was acquiring full ownership of Netkraft.

Adea Solutions provides firms with software development and consultancy services. It employs 1,300 people and already has an office in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad.

Netkraft also provides outsourcing services and employs 300 staff.

Earlier this week, Singapore-based Flextronics, the world's largest electronics maker, said it planned to buy a 55 percent stake in India's Hughes Software Systems for $226 million.

In April, IBM said it was buying Daksh eServices, an Indian back-office services firm. Though the companies did not reveal the price, media reports said it was around $150 million.

There have also been a number of smaller deals in the last few months.

When the IBM deal was announced, India's outsourcing executives predicted that a wave of acquisitions by global corporations of Indian outsourcing companies was just getting started.

Such acquisitions help companies get a toehold in India and benefit from its cheap and skilled labor, and for firms that already have software development centers in India, like Adea, acquisitions are an easy way to expand.