How Indian IT developed a taste for acquisitions this year
₹96,557 crore) in dividends and share buybacks and about $1.5 billion (around ₹14,000 crore) on acquisitions, Mint research showed. Earlier in FY22, the same companies spent about ₹27,000 crore on buyouts and gave ₹81,669 crore to shareholders.
Significantly, a few of the cash-rich, homegrown IT services firms, including Coforge Ltd and Hexaware Technologies Ltd, are now spending more on acquisitions than on returning cash to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks.A big chunk of the FY25 acquisitions was courtesy Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, the risk-averse leader of the IT pack, which agreed to spend $773 million to buy out US-based digital marketing services firm ListEngage, and Florida-based Salesforce consulting firm Coastal Cloud. In its first analyst day in over a decade earlier month, TCS told analysts that the company “will be more acquisitive, mainly for capabilities,” according to analysts at Kotak Securities.
Interestingly, TCS has bought fewer than a dozen companies since going public in 2004, choosing to build technologies in-house.“TCS highlighted a dual strategy of deepening AI ecosystem partnerships across hyperscalers, platforms, domain leaders, and AI-native firms, while pursuing selective M&A to strengthen capabilities in cloud, cybersecurity, digital, enterprise platforms, and advisory,” wrote Pritesh Thakkar and Sujay Chavan, analysts at PL Capital, in a note dated 18 January.Additionally, more deals are driven by mid-tier firms like Coforge, which last week announced the largest acquisition by an Indian IT firm, agreeing to buy US software firm Encora in an all-stock deal valued at $2.39 billion. With this, Coforge, the seventh-largest IT services firm, has spent ₹21,450 crore on
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