13 | Teledata Informatics: Acquisition Story

It was a frantic year for Teledata. With a strategic $105 mn
investment, the company acquired majority stake in IT distribution major, eSys
Technologies. Interestingly, the acquisition seemed to spur off an entire
re-structuring exercise, as Teledata announced plans to hive off its marine and
technology divisions into separate bodies, to be listed separately on the NSE
and BSE.

Teledata Technology Solutions, the demerged entity for the
technology division, will consolidate all technology related subsidiaries
including eSys. Which seemed to be at the heart of this consolidation with Vikas
Goel, presently eSys MD, proposed to head TTS as CEO.

The eSys acquisition added hardware and distribution strengths
to Teledatas existing software offerings. eSys brought with it strengths like
vendor and partner relationships, reach, logistics efficiency, and manufacturing
capability. The company that emerged was an end-to-end solutions provider with
seamless IT solutions ranging from hardware to solutions and servicesleading
to an SI offering. The result: a couple of new projects on the basis of its
synergistic portfolio. This included a project in Bihar for 1,000 schools, and
from Nagaland State Council of Educational Research and Training. It also picked
up a BOOT project for 800 primary schools from Gujarat.

Teledata also went ahead with organic expansion with plans to
pump in Rs 250 crore for setting up a PC manufacturing unit in Baddi, Himachal
Pradesh with an installed annual capacity of 1.2 mn units, to be operational by
Q3 FY 08. DQ