Mastek ends Deloitte JV

Mastek, a Mumbai-based IT services firm, pulled out of its joint venture with Deloitte Consulting, citing stagnant revenues and falling profits.

The 500 professionals employed in Mumbai will remain with the existing entity, which will function as a wholly-owned unit of Deloitte & Touche, USA.

While the company declined to comment on the valuation of the joint venture, industry sources estimated it to be a little over Rs 50 crore.

Mastek will be using the proceeds from exiting the venture "� which it expects to complete by the end of this financial year "� to acquire a US-based company providing application development in the insurance or the government segment.

Doug Lattner, chairman and CEO, Deloitte Consulting, said, "Our alliance with Mastek was instrumental in helping Deloitte Consulting build its business centre in Mumbai and our collaboration has been very fruitful and we thank Mastek for their support. It is now time to further commit to our offshore capabilities as an integral part of our service delivery and our purchase of Mastek's interest is a demonstration of that commitment."

The five-year-old joint venture was created to offer India-based software services in areas such as application development, systems implementation, integration and information technology outsourcing services for US clients of Deloitte Consulting.

Under the JV, Mastek was in charge of delivery, operations and infrastructure support, whereas Deloitte brought in its project management expertise, functional knowledge and worldwide client relationships to the JV.