Cisco is looking for its first acquisition in the emerging technologies space in India as part making the country its next global hub.
MUMBAI: Cisco is looking for its first acquisition in the emerging technologies space in India as part making the country its next global hub.
The company, which set up its second globalisation centre in Bangalore last December, needs to acquire a domestic firm to fulfill the strategies it has lined up for India, said analysts.
Cisco has already acquired Scientific Atlanta, WebEx, Audium and has invested in four Indian companies, including Indiagames and Bharti Telesoft.
The company has set aside over $1 billion for the next two years for expansion. This includes setting up of an research and & development (R&D) centre for $750 million in Bangalore.
Anil Bhasin, vice-president, enterprise, Cisco India & SAARC, said: “We are looking for acquisitions but nothing has been finalised yet. The acquisition should fit into our India growth strategy and add value to Cisco.”
Analysts believe that Cisco’s India buyout would depend on innovation, talent and growth of the company. Cisco commanded a share of 80% of the Rs 4,200 crore networking market in India in 2005-06 and spends roughly 15% of its annual revenues on R&D.
Cisco employs over 2,800 people in R&D, sales and business support in the country.
Cisco also sees big opportunity in the country’s retail industry and in global markets. It is working closely with top retail companies globally, including India. With networking spends in organised retail, telecom, IT/ITES and banking set to jump, Cisco is set to ride the booming opportunities in the country.
Bhasin further said Cisco is betting big on the domestic financial services, retail, manufacturing and infrastructure sectors where it can see huge growth by FY10.
“We are talking with big retailers, including Reliance, Tatas, Birlas, Bharti etc for their different kind of needs to run their retail businesses and we are creating a wireless environment for Kishore Biyani’s Future Group,” Bhasin added.
In 2005, Cisco reorganised its sales and marketing team across four business segments — IT/ITES, enterprise, telecom service providers and the government sector for better understanding of its customers, which also helped Cisco go market with industry specific solutions.
Cisco Systems now has seven sales and marketing offices spread across New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata and Hyderabad. Cisco India has joint development centres with
IT majors like Wipro Technologies and Infosys Technologies at Bangalore, HCL Technologies in Chennai, Satyam Computer Services in Hyderabad and Zensar Technologies in Pune.
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