Infosys

Infosys Technologies Limited (BSE: 500209, NASDAQ: INFY) is a multinational information technology services company headquartered in Bangalore, India. It operates nine development centers in India and has over 30 offices worldwide. Infosys' annual revenues for the fiscal year 2006-2007 exceeded US$3.1 billion with a market capitalization of over US$30 billion. Infosys' income was at Rs. 3,773 crore ($920 million) and net profit was at Rs. 1,079 crore ($263 million) for the quarter ended June 30, 2007. ^[1] Infosys and its subsidiaries employ over 75,971 professionals (as of June 30, 2007) worldwide and it is one of India's largest IT companies.^[2]

History

Infosys was founded on July 2, 1981 in Pune by N. R. Narayana Murthy and six others: Nandan Nilekani, N. S. Raghavan, Kris Gopalakrishnan, S. D. Shibulal, K. Dinesh and Ashok Arora^[3], with Raghavan officially being the first employee of the company. Murthy started the company by borrowing Rs.10,000 from his wife Sudha Murthy. The company was incorporated as "Infosys Consultants Pvt Ltd.", with Raghavan's house in Matunga, north-central Mumbai as the registered office. In 1983, Infosys moved its headquarters to Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka. In 1987 Infosys got its first foreign client, Data Basics Corporation from the United States.

In 1999 Infosys attained a SEI-CMM Level 5 ranking and became the first Indian company to be listed on NASDAQ. In 2001 it was rated "Best Employer in India" by Business Today,^[4] and in 2002 Business World named Infosys "India's Most Respected Company".^[5] Infosys won the Global MAKE (Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises) award, for the years 2004 and 2003, being the only Indian company to win this award.^[6]

[edit] Timeline

Infosys headquarters in Pune.

• 1981: Founded on July 2 by seven software professionals: N. R. Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, N. S. Raghavan, Kris Gopalakrishnan, S. D. Shibulal, K. Dinesh and Ashok Arora
• 1987: First international office in the US in Fremont, California, now its US headquarters
• 1993: Became a public limited company in India with an initial public offering of Rs. 13 crores.
• 1996: First office in Europe in Milton Keynes, UK
• 1997: Office in Toronto, Canada
• 1999: Listed on Nasdaq
• 2000: Opened offices in France and Hong Kong
• 2001: Opened offices in United Arab Emirates and Argentina
• 2002: Opened new offices in Netherlands, Singapore and Switzerland
• 2002: Started Progeon, its BPO (business process outsourcing) subsidiary^[7]
• 2003: Acquired 100% equity of Expert Information Services Pty Limited, Australia (Expert) and changed the name to Infosys Australia Pty Limited.
• 2004: Set up Infosys Consulting Inc., U.S. consulting subsidiary in California, U.S.
• 2006: July 2, Infosys celebrated its 25 years^[8]
• 2006: Became the first Indian company to ring the NASDAQ Stock Market Opening Bell
• 2006: August 20, N. R. Narayana Murthy retired from his position as the executive chairman^[9]
• 2006: Acquired the 23% stake Citibank had in its BPO offshoot Progeon, making it a wholly owned subsidiary of Infosys and changed the name to Infosys BPO Ltd.^[10]
• 2006: December, became the first Indian company to make it to Nasdaq-100^[11]
• 2007: April 13, Nandan Nilekani stepped down as CEO and made way for Kris Gopalakrishnan to occupy his chair effective June 2007
• 2007: July 25, Infosys bags multi-million dollar outsourcing contract with Royal Philips Electronics in the area Finance & Accounting services strengthening its European operations. ^[12]

During the 14-year period from 1993 to 2007, the share issue price of Infosys has increased 3000-fold. An investment of Rs. 9,500 (100 shares at an issue price of Rs 95) in the initial public offering of Infosys in 1993 (Rs. 9,500 was approximately $300 according to the 1993 exchange rate) would now be worth Rs. 29,440,000 ($665,235 according to the 2007 exchange rate) after adjusting for stock splits and bonuses. This is excluding the dividends that the company has paid out.^[13]

[edit] Key industries

Infosys HQ in Bangalore.

Infosys serves various industries through its vertical business units, such as:

• Aerospace and Automobile (AnA)
• Banking & Capital Markets (BCM)
• Communication Service Providers (CSP)
• Resources, Energy & Utilities (REU)
• Hi Tech & Discrete Manufacturing (HTDM)
• Insurance, Healthcare & Life Sciences (IHL)
• Media and Entertainment
• Product Lifecycle and Engineering Solutions (PLES)
• Retail, Distribution & CPG (RETL)
• Transportation & Services (TnS)
• Independent Validation Solutions (IVS) - provides software testing services.
• IT Infrastructure Management Services (IMS) - manages core networks, data centers and servers of clients.
• Real Estate
• Life science

In addition to these, there are business units aligned to clients' geographies, such as EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa), APAC (Asia-Pacific) and CAND (Canada). There are also horizontal business units such as ES (Enterprise Solutions), which specializes in ERP and package implementation and works with clients across industries and geographies and SI (Systems Integration), which provides integration services to clients.