Global credit rating agency Moody's has acquired knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) services firm Amba which provides investment research and quantitative analytics for global financial institutions.
Even as the financial details were not disclosed, industry estimates indicate that Moody’s may have shelled out between $80-100 million towards this acquisition considering that Amba is expecting to generate close to $39 million in revenues in 2013. Post-acquisition, Amba will operate as part of Moody’s Analytics majority-owned subsidiary, Copal Partners.
It may be noted that Amba was founded in 2003 by four senior executives from Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, and JP Morgan Andrew Houston, Mohan Alexander, Brad West, and Anand Aithal. Interestingly, the name Amba is a combination of the first letter of each of its founders' names.
It has around 1,000 employees with delivery centres located in Costa Rica, India and Sri Lanka. In 2007, Amba had raised $10 million from Helion Venture Partners. "Amba is highly regarded for its offerings to investment research firms and asset managers, and Copal is known for its strong services for corporate finance. Together, their scale, talent and resources offer global financial institutions a broader array of research and analytics," said a release quoting Moody's Analytics President Mark Almeida.