Today in Tech: Infosys to acquire Lodestone for $348 million; A software firm that employs people with autism & Lessons from Domino's Pizza

Infosys to acquire Lodestone for $348 million

 Infosys today said that it's buying Lodestone, a Zurich based management consultancy firm for CHF 330 million (USD 348 million) in an all cash deal. Infosys CEO SD Shibulal will speak to the media this afternoon.

The news doesn't come as a surprise. There were several hints during the last few weeks. Infosys was under pressure from investors to make use of its $4 billion cash for acquisitions and boost its slowing revenue growth. There were rumors that it will announce one sooner than later. In fact, these rumors intensified towards the end of last week, even as its share price went up by 5%. The announcement came earlier today.

Infosys said, Lodestone will add more than 850 employees and 200 clients to its portfolio. "Post-acquisition, the combined Consulting practice focusing on SAP programs will deliver revenues of more than $1 Billion," it said.

“A key plank of our Infosys 3.0 strategy is to expand our Consulting & Systems Integration business. This acquisition fits perfectly into that strategy," Shibulal said in a press statement.

Consulting and systems integration business brings close to a third of Infosys revenues, but employs only a fifth of its employees, which explains why Infosys wants to expand this. Shibulal said earlier that adding more and more people in line with revenues is not be a viable option. What Infosys needs is non-linear growth.

Lodestone's revenues might look small - Infosys is 40 times the size of Lodestone - but as we saw earlier the key today is incremental revenues. Some have argued that lower margins of Lodestone is a minus for Infosys. But then, when it comes to consulting, it's also about the doors it opens.

The bigger risk, really, is in retention of talent, and getting the best out of them post acquisition. Being a partner in your own consulting firm is not the same as working for an IT Services company half way around the world. It will be interesting to see how Infosys handles that.

A software firm that employs people with autism Schwab Foundation has announced its latest Social Entrepreneur Awards for 2012. Among the organisations that won the award is The Specialist People Foundation. It's based in Denmark and trains people with autism to work as IT consultants for Specialisterne, a for profit IT company .

The story of Specialisterne is fascinating. It was founded by an engineer by name Thorkil Sonne. He was just another high-ranked professional working in a Danish software venture, when he found that his son had autism. He was worried, but he also saw that people with autism had special skills. They had laser sharp concentration, amazing memory and an enviable eye for detail - all of which can be of value to IT companies. But businesses in general seldom looked at their strengths. So, he quit his job, and founded Specialisterne in 2004. It counts Microsoft and Cisco among its clients today. Three fourths of its employees are autistic. Here's a crisp (but 3 year old) intro from Wired, and here's an insightful interview Sonne gave to HBR on what we can learn from employees with autism.

What e-commerce firms can learn from Domino's Pizza
There has been a lot of debate around cash-on-delivery option that's being adopted by every other e-commerce firm. K Vaitheeswaran, founder and CEO of Indiaplaza told my colleague Rohin Dharmakumar: “We have taken millions of people who would have been happy paying through cards and moved them to COD. It is a step back for the long term development of e-commerce”. In today's Business Standard, Alok Kejriwal, CEO & Co-founder, Games2win argues that cash-on-delivery is a force for good. It's "actually one of the best things that has happened in e-commerce, or for that matter, any form of commerce." But, what's most interesting is the way he turns to an unlikely source for evidence: Domino's Pizza. Click here.

The thoughts and opinions shared here are of the author.