Bangalore based Meritos merges with US product engineering firm

Thursday, 15 February 2007, 18:30 IST
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Bangalore: Encora group, the US-based product engineering firm and Meritos, a Bangalore-based software development firm, have merged to expand their combined operations in the sub-continent. As a combined entity, Encora will focus on software development and delivery in the mid-size market for independent software vendors (ISVs). It currently has 35 ISVs as clients working for global firms such as Google, SAP and a host of mid-tier firms. "We plan to invest $18 million (800 million) in capex over the next three years. With increasing wage costs, the overall expenditure is likely to be about $100 million in the same period. Being cash-rich, we will try to meet the capex from internal accruals and raise $5-10 million at a later stage. "We hope to generate $50 million by 2009 as against $20 million by the end of this fiscal (FY 2007)," Encora CEO Venu Raghavan said here in a statement on Thursday. Post-merger, Encora plans to increase the headcount by hiring 400 software developers in the next 12 months as against the current strength of 160 techies. By 2009-10, the headcount will be ramped up to 1,500 people. Encora's four strategic investors - Apar Investments, Basil Investments, Honorex and Avit Investments - will, however, continue to remain with the entity even after merger. According to the company's estimates, the global mid-sized product development market is projected to be a whopping $35 billion. "We will target about 4,000 firms which spend anywhere between $35 million and $350 million on IT spending annually," Raghavan said. Encora focuses on verticals such as business process management, supply chain management and enterprise asset management.
Source: IANS