CIOInsider India Magazine

Many prominent Indian businesses are currently experiencing significant growth, as they venture into new territories. Whether it's steel companies reaching new levels of success or tech companies acquiring advanced technology like AI and cybersecurity, Indian enterprises are reshaping their destinies through bold investments and strategic takeovers. This surge in expansion demonstrates a strong desire to enhance global competitiveness, explore untapped markets, and spearhead a new era of innovation-driven progress.

Coforge Set to Acquire Encora for a Hefty $2.35 Billion
Coforge, an IT solutions company, plans to buy Encora, a Silicon Valley artificial intelligence company, for $2.35 billion in an all-stock deal. This acquisition will be the biggest ever made by an Indian IT company in the ER&D sector. This deal is considered the fourth largest in the field of engineering research and development globally and marks the second biggest purchase ever made by an Indian IT company. It is expected to significantly boost Coforge's capabilities in artificial intelligence as well as expand its reach in different regions.

Also Read: Zoho Launches Advanced AI Features for Students and Businesses

The acquisition of Encora marks a significant milestone for our company. It paves the way for a strong engineering capability focused on AI, supported by features that facilitate the development of tailored enterprise data cores and cloud infrastructure designed for AI applications. The combined entity, valued at $2.5 billion, includes a $2 billion enterprise core specializing in AI-led engineering, data management, and cloud services. According to Sudhir Singh, the CEO and executive director of Coforge, this new partnership will establish a standard for bringing the potential of AI to life in the business world.

HCLTech to Acquire HPE's Telco Solutions Division
HCLTech, a well-known technology company on a global scale, recently completed a transaction to take over HPE's Telco Solutions division, solidifying its dominant position in the telecommunications industry. This latest acquisition not only includes top-notch intellectual property (IP), product engineering, and R&D capabilities, but also brings valuable relationships with key Communication Service Providers (CSPs) around the world.

HCLTech plans to use Telco Solutions’ CTG portfolio to speed up network transformation, Network as a Service (NaaS), and AI-powered autonomous networking. As part of the deal, around 1,500 engineering and telecommunications experts from 39 countries will join HCLTech's global delivery team to help expand the business.

Freshworks to Acquire FireHydrant
Freshworks Inc has officially closed a deal to acquire FireHydrant, a company specializing in AI-powered Incident Management technology. By combining Freshservice’s IT Service Management with FireHydrant’s IT Operations Management, the merger will create an integrated AI-centric ServiceOps solution. The goal is to improve efficiency, prevent disruptions, and ensure reliable IT service delivery.

According to Dennis Woodside, the CEO and President of Freshworks, the FireHydrant technology will play a key role in merging IT and employee experiences to enhance business continuity and efficiency with the help of AI. This acquisition will boost our Freshservice momentum by bringing together essential IT features for our customers.

Robert Ross, the creator and leader of FireHydrant, believes that Freshworks aligns with the fundamental principle that has driven FireHydrant from its inception: technology should simplify life for its users.

Also Read: GX Group to Invest in India for Photonic Module and Chip Unit

Nvidia Acquires AI Software Provider SchedMD
Nvidia has recently acquired the AI software company SchedMD, as part of its strategy to expand its presence in open-source technology and invest more heavily in the AI industry to stay ahead of the growing competition. SchedMD provides software specifically created for managing large computing assignments that require a considerable amount of server resources within a data center. Their software, known as Slurm, is available as open source, enabling developers and businesses to utilize it for free.

Nvidia claims that Slurm, which works well with the latest Nvidia hardware, plays a crucial role in supporting generative AI infrastructure. This infrastructure is used by developers and creators in the AI field to manage the training and inference needs of foundation models. Nvidia introduced a fresh lineup of open-source AI models that it believes will outperform its previous versions in terms of efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and intelligence, as it faces heightened competition from alternative open-source models created by Chinese AI institutions.

ServiceNow to Acquire Cybersecurity Startup Armis
ServiceNow, a software company, is currently in advanced talks to purchase Armis, a cybersecurity company that was previously valued at $6.1 billion, according to reports. The potential deal, valued at around $7 billion, would be the largest acquisition for ServiceNow. Yevgeny Dibrov, CEO and co-founder of Armis, mentioned that the company is considering going public by the end of 2026 or beginning of 2027, depending on market factors.

Armis's decision to be acquired instead of going public is a common path for startups nowadays. The IPO market is unpredictable, causing many startups to choose to remain private for a longer period rather than risk a lackluster debut on the stock exchange. Dibrov revealed that Armis plans to go public by late 2026 or early 2027, but he emphasized that there is no rush and they are monitoring market conditions. He highlighted that the company's primary goal is to achieve $1 billion in annual recurring revenue.

Also Read: Google to Build its Biggest Data Center in Visakhapatnam

TCS to Acquire 100 percent Stake in Coastal Cloud
TCS, a top IT services firm, has officially agreed to acquire the entire stake in Coastal Cloud, a Salesforce Summit partner, for a hefty sum of $700 million. This acquisition is set to be one of the largest in TCS's history. TCS has expanded its knowledge and capabilities in Salesforce advisory and business consulting globally through Coastal Cloud, utilizing a team of over 400 skilled professionals who collectively possess over 3,000 multi-cloud certifications. According to Aarthi Subramanian, Tata Consultancy Services' chief operating officer, the acquisition is a significant move towards enhancing the company's global Salesforce capabilities and speeding up their AI-led transformation agenda. This marks an important step towards TCS's goal of becoming the top AI-focused technology services company globally. By bringing on board more than 400 specialists skilled in multi-cloud solutions and with industry knowledge, TCS is bolstering its consulting abilities and expanding its AI and data services. The addition of the Coastal Cloud team to the TCS family is met with excitement. Aarthi stated that both Eric and Altaf Shaikh, from ListEngage, will assist in strengthening TCS's leadership in driving growth for their Salesforce division.

Virtusa Acquires SmartSoC Solutions
Virtusa, a company that focuses on providing product and platform engineering services, revealed that it has purchased SmartSoC Solutions, a Bengaluru-based firm specializing in semiconductor engineering and integrated circuit design services. The Massachusetts-based company announced that through this strategic acquisition, they are positioned at the forefront of AI and chip design innovation to meet the growing need for advanced silicon.

Nitesh Banga, CEO of Virtusa, believes that acquiring SmartSoC will be a game-changer for the company. This move establishes Virtusa as a strong player in the rapidly growing field of semiconductor engineering, aligning with our goal of offering a complete solution to clients from the basic silicon level to the end-user application. The purchase also reinforces Virtusa's presence in India in the semiconductor engineering sector and boosts our global delivery capabilities by integrating SmartSoC's engineering operations in Bengaluru, Hubli, and Hyderabad. Additionally, this acquisition brings in more than 1,400 highly skilled engineers specializing in VLSI, physical design, and embedded software.