Wipro acquires SAIC's tech biz for Rs 675 crore

SAIC to transfer its IT arm

Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC ) currently provides consulting, system integration and outsourcing services to global oil majors. “The acquisition boosts Wipro’s capability to address the upstream segment of oil and gas industry, where most investments are happening,” said Wipro Technologies Senior Vice President, Energy, Natural Resources & Utilities SBU, Anand Padmanabhan in a conference call.

The IT opportunity in upstream or the exploration part of oil and gas business, is expected to grow to $19 billion by 2013. SAIC reportedly has significant domain capabilities in the areas of digital oil field, petro-technical data management and petroleum application services. “Wipro complements IT services to SAIC’s present skill-sets,” Padmanabhan said. While SAIC has a strong presence in USA and Europe, Wipro has a base in other geographies such as Middle East and Asia Pacific, he added.

Wipro Technologies CFO Manish Duggar, said, “With the acquisition of SAIC’s current practice, which earned an annual revenue $188 million, the contribution of Energy, Natural Resources and Utilities SBU to Wipro Technologies would rise to eleven per cent.”
SAIC is transferring its IT practice to Wipro, along with its customers, six of whom are Fortune 500 companies. As part of the deal, 1,450 SAIC employees, including senior executives, are expected to move over to Wipro across North America, Europe, India and Middle East. “Four hundred and fifty of these employees are based in India and given the complementary nature of services, there would be no redundancy or layoffs,” Wipro officials said.