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Sasken may buy Nokia's R&D unit in Germany
By siliconindia
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Thursday, 07 February 2008, 02:28 IST
Coimbatore: Bangalore-based Sasken Communication Technologies, a global provider of software and support services for the communications industry, is likely to acquire an R&D unit of Nokia in Germany. The move is a part of the plans of Sasken management to "re-examine the product portfolio and align it with market realities."
Kannankote Srikanth, President and COO of the company said that the unit is linked to connectivity software and has nearly 30 to 40 employees. "We are pretty excited about Nokia's choice of Sasken. It gives us a whole new market opportunity in terms of their significant platform," Srikanth added. However, many formalities are yet to be completed.
The company also plans to have Special Economic Zone (SEZ) space in Chennai and Bangalore and expects them to be completed in the first quarter of fiscal 2009.
Rajiv C. Mody, Chairman and CEO, Sasken, said that while the flagship product line of the company, the S-series, continued to have good market demand, the M-series product line has reached a mature phase in its technology cycle. Hence, while the company continued to support its ongoing contract, it was looking to explore new business model that can leverage the expertise that has been built.
Ms Neeta Revankar, Chief Financial Officer, referring to the question of margins, said margin was improved by 1.5 percent - from 13.2 percent EBITDA in the second quarter to 14.7 percent EBITDA in the third quarter this year - due to some improvement in bill rates and in utilization.
Commenting on the deals on the pipeline in the services side, Mody said while there was a slow growth in the network equipment side, he saw about 20 to 25 percent growth in the handset and silicon side.
