Infosys acquires US-based Kallidus for $120 mn in an all cash deal

IT major that announced its fourth quarter earnings today has picked up a minority stake in Airviz

For a company that has been rather conservative when it comes to acquisitions, Infosys' first non-founder CEO Vishal Sikka has taken Infosys on a fast-track on inorganic growth, as the company today announced two new acquisitions.

 This comes close in heels with the company's recent acquisition of automation technology firm Panaya.

The company has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Kallidus Inc, a leading provider of digital experience solutions including mobile commerce and in-store shopping experiences to large retail clients.

Infosys will pay $120 million in cash for the acquisition, including retention bonus and deferred component. Kallidus delivers a cloud hosted platform for mobile websites, apps, and other digital shopping experiences across mobile, tablet, desktop, in-store, and all emerging channels to large retail clients worldwide, Infosys said.

The platform enables retailers to provide a mobile specific experience to their customers through an agile and flexible environment, enabling personalisation and delivering customer analytics across multiple channels. 

“Mergers & acquisitions will be a significant part of our strategy going forward and therefore we want to keep a significant amount of funds dedicated towards it,” Infosys' Chief Financial Officer Rajiv Bansal said during the post-earnings conference call.

Additionally, Infosys said it has entered into a definitive agreement for an “early-stage investment” of $2 million in Airviz, to acquire a minority share. 

Airviz is  a personal air quality monitoring startup and spin-out from Carnegie Mellon University. “This investment was made out of the $ 500  million  Innovation Fund earmarked for investments in new technologies,” Infosys said. 

“The acquisition positions us as a driving force in the fast-growing personal health monitoring market with a big data solution that provides indoor air pollution sensing and visualisation.”