STG's Wadhwani raises fund to acquire companies
By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 12 December 2007, 03:05 IST
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Bangalore: In a global attempt to acquire companies in software and services, serial entrepreneur Romesh Wadhwani's Symphony Technology Group (STG) has raised a $1 billion fund, its second corpus. Investors in the fund include Wadhwani and the Singapore government, reported Business Standard. "We have closed the second fund worth $1 billion to make the next round of acquisitions for the next four years. While I have contributed 50 percent of the corpus, two of the world's leading Universities in the U.S. have put in $100 million each, other investors include Singapore Investment Corporation, the island nation's investment arm," Wadhwani, CEO and Chairman, STG said. STG expects to close 2007 with revenue of $2.1 billion and 13,000 people globally. In 2006, STG had a top line of $1.2 billion and over 7,000 people across its companies. We are aggressive on acquisitions so as to grow the group to revenues of $5 billion in next four years, said Wadhwani. STG focuses its investments in growing businesses in the software and services markets. The first fund worth $200 million was raised in 2002. STG so far has either built or acquired seven companies, which have significant offshore presence in India. While Symphony Services is the flagship company in outsourced product development, others who fall in this category are Aldata, Symphony Metreo, Lawson, ImmediateFX, IRI and Capco. The group also recently announced spinning off its marketing analytics unit of as Symphony Marketing Solutions (SMS), which will be another portfolio company for STG. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, STG will look for acquisitions of software and services companies in financial services, pharmaceuticals, consumer goods, retail and telecom verticals.

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