Symphony to expand, acquires In-Reality

Symphony Service Corporation, a leading business services outsourcing company has announced the acquisition of the Pune-based In-Reality Software Pvt Ltd.

While the cost of acquisition has not been revealed, Symphony officials have said that a majority of the consideration will be paid through stock swap. The transaction, which is subject to certain closing conditions, is expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2004.

In-Reality is over a year-old and in just about 16 months, until September 2004, this company has bagged up to 15 customers. In-Reality's core strength lies in product development for OEMs and ISVs. This company is about 200-strong and profitable.

"We looked at nearly 60 companies when we thought of an acquisition and were also inclined to diversify from Bangalore. Besides the manner in which In-Reality has grown in just over a year, we found that they have a strong capability in systems software, storage software and enterprise applications, which was strategically a great alignment with Symphony," Ajay Kela, president, India, Symphony Services, said.

With the acquisition of In-Reality, Symphony has decided to invest about $15 million into its facilities in Pune. However, this investment is very much part of the overall investment of $100 million that the company had committed over a period of 4-5 years, in 2001.

The acquisition has come at a time when Symphony is ramping up its data management and analytics business, which began with 30 people in the beginning of the year and is already about 500-strong.

Symphony is 'on-track' to be about 4,000-strong by the end of next year with the Pune facility expected to have nearly 1,000-people by then. It must be noted that nearly 95 per cent of Symphony's employees worldwide are currently located in India. Symphony is currently about 1,500-strong (excluding In-Reality staff) and is keen on hiring about 400 employees in the current year.

Symphony is banking on the fact that Mumbai is a great source of talent, the benefit of which can be reaped by its Pune facility.

"The industry is at a stage where outsourcing high-value work is not only mainstream, but also strategic to companies. This acquisition gives us the advantage of another India location to service our clients," added Kela.