Cognizant buys project management consultant PIPC

IT services company, Cognizant, has acquired global program management consultancy, PIPC Group, to expand its project management skills base. PIPC has some 200 professionals worldwide, mainly in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Cognizant president and CEO, Francisco D’Souza, said PIPC’s program management experts will be a welcome addition to Cognizant.

PIPC’s strategic program management offerings will strengthen our ability to manage increasingly complex global projects while expanding our geographic footprint, particularly in Australia, New Zealand and the UK, D’Souza said. Formed as the technology arm of the Dun & Bradstreet Corporation in 1994, Cognizant offers outsourcing to India and other geographies. The company has more than 50 global delivery centres and about 85,500 employees.

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SAP to buy Sybase in $5.8bn deal

SAP, the world’s largest enterprise software maker, has agreed to buy US rival Sybase in a deal worth $5.8bn, its biggest acquisition in almost three years. The German software group will pay $65 per share in cash for Sybase, SAP said in a statement on Wednesday evening.

That represents a 44 per cent premium to the three-month average stock price of the fourth-largest provider of database software. The move extends the rivalry between SAP and US rival Oracle, where Oracle has been the leading database company but is number two to SAP in business management software. Bill McDermott, SAP’s co-chief executive, said the company would benefit hugely from Sybase’s database and mobile application technology.

We see a great potential in combining the leader in enterprise software with the leader in mobility, Mr McDermott said. The deal marks a fast foray into dealmaking by Mr McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe, SAP’s co-chief executives.

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The above article was extracted from Skyline updates of Skyline College. Skyline College is amongst the top MBA and BBA institutes in Delhi, Gurgaon (NCR).

Barclays' first quarter profit fails to impress

Shares in High Street banking giant Barclays have fallen 6.4% despite a big rise in pre-tax profits for the first three months of 2010. Barclays' profit for the first quarter was £1.82bn, up 47% on a year earlier, with most of it coming from investment banking arm Barclays Capital. However, analysts said that the amount of money made by that division was less than expected.

Barclays was the biggest faller on the FTSE 100 index, down 23p to 338.25p. The bank's strengthened investment banking division reported profit before tax of £1.47bn during the first three months of the year, up 47% on the same period a year ago. It is not a bad quarter, it's just not the blow-out numbers shown by some of the other banks, said Colin Morton, fund manager at Rensburg Fund Management. It has gone into the numbers with very high expectations, and BarCap has come in a bit light in terms of income, he said.
2nd May 2010, www.bbc.co.uk

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The above article was extracted from Skyline updates of Skyline College. Skyline College is amongst the top MBA and BBA institutes in Delhi, Gurgaon (NCR).

Liechtenstein deal 'to net £1bn'

A breakthrough deal to recover lost tax from Britons holding bank accounts in Liechtenstein will net £1bn, Chancellor Alistair Darling has said. HM Revenue & Customs struck an agreement last month with the Alpine tax haven to exchange information. Up to 5,000 British investors are thought to have funds in secret accounts in the country - which would mean an average pay-back of £200,000.

The Revenue has requested details of 100,000 offshore accounts worldwide. Tackling offshore evasion tax evasion and tax havens was "not only fair" but "particularly important... especially at a time when we expect public spending in the period ahead to be tighter", Mr Darling told the CBI Scotland annual dinner.
www.bbc.co.uk

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G20 pledges tougher bank action

Finance ministers from the world's most powerful economies have agreed a series of measures to try to regulate the global banking system. They want a system that rewards long-term performance rather than short-term risk-taking. However the G20 meeting in London did not agree on specific limits on the amounts individual bankers get paid. Britain, the US and Canada opposed the idea, but the Financial Stability Board is to examine the issue.

It will report back to the summit of G20 leaders in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania later this month. The G20 countries agreed on measures requiring banks to disclose the pay and bonuses of their highest-paid employees and to allow bonuses to be "clawed back" if decisions which seemed successful later go wrong.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk

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Further decline in Indian exports

India's exports declined at an annual rate of 28% in July, the 10th month in a row of falls, after the weak global economy continued to hit demand. The country exported $13.6bn (£8.2bn) of goods and services during the month, the official figures showed. At the same time, India's imports were down 37% to $19.6bn in July. Last week, the Indian government announced a series of measures to help exporters, including tax breaks and better access to finance. The latest export figures come a day after the Central Statistical Organisation said the country's economy expanded at an annual rate of 6.1% between April and June, up from 5.8% from January to March, lifted by government stimulus spending.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk

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Airline losses 'hit $1bn a month'

Airlines are likely to have lost more than $6bn (£3.7bn) in the first half of 2009, according to the International Air Transport Association (Iata). This figure - an average of $1bn a month - is double the amount Iata said in December that airlines would lose during the whole of 2009. Airlines made losses between April and June, when they would usually make 50% of their annual profits, Iata said.

Meanwhile, budget airline SkyEurope has filed for bankruptcy. The loss-making Slovakian airline, which was set up in 2001, has suspended all flights with immediate effect. And American Airlines has said it is cutting 921 flight attendant jobs as it deals with a downturn in passengers, and lower revenue.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk

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