Capgemini to complete IGATE merger by June, rules out job cuts

French IT major Capgemini will complete integration of business with IGATE, which it had acquired in a $4 billion deal, by June and said that none of the 88,000 jobs in the combined entity will be touched as part of the process.

"By June it should be over," Capgemini India Chief Executive Srinivas Kandula said today on the sidelines of the Nasscom summit in Mumbai.

The first phase of integration in which the gaps and complementaries between both the businesses were identified is already over and the company is embarking on the second phase soon but this is difficult as it involves the integration of systems and processes, he said.

"So far, our integration has been smooth, attrition remains stable and we didn't have any attrition from clients and client confidence continues to be there," he added.

On duplication of jobs and possible lay-offs, Kandula said it's only the top echelons where there is some duplication.

Apart from this, only 15-20 job positions are found to have some duplication which can easily be handled given the size of our already existing operations here, he said.

This was possible because in IT each team serves a dedicated client and during the due-diligence it has turned out that only three clients are common between the two entities, the executive said.

"The CEO has left, and I was heading the HR. The CFO too has moved as head of the North American operations. Given the size of Capgemini and our business, it wasn't difficult to find opportunities for IGATE people. There will be no redundancy virtually," he said adding that the combined entity employs 88,000 here including 24,000 of the erstwhile IGATE.

When asked about the concerns on clients from the BFSI and healthcare segments flagged by Cognizant, Kandula refused to term them as systemic concerns and said that each company has a different story to tell on it.

In April, Capgemini had bought IGATE for $4 billion to create an entity with a combined revenue of $14 billion to take on rivals like IBM.

The acquisition gave Capgemini access to IGATE's customers like General Electric and Royal Bank of Canada and boost its US-generated business to 30% of its total revenue and make North America its largest market.

The US-based IGATE was an applications network and business process outsourcing specialist and drew almost 35% of its income from the US and Canada while Capgemini is into infrastructure services, healthcare, retail and manufacturing markets.