Infosys acquires m-commerce platform for $120 million

Bengaluru/Chennai: Infosys has made a second big acquisition in a little over two months, marking a significant change in the company's approach to M&As under CEO Vishal Sikka.

It has acquired US-based digital experience provider Kallidus (which does business under the name Skava) for $120 million (Rs 756 crore). The acquisition is an all-cash deal that includes retention bonus and a deferred component.

Kallidus (Skava), founded by former Microsoft employees Arish Ali and Sudha K V, delivers a cloud-hosted platform for mobile websites, apps and other digital shopping experiences across mobile, tablet, desktop and other channels to large retail clients. The company has a development centre in Coimbatore.

"Infosys has traditionally been M&A shy. They are building momentum by doing such smaller acquisitions, embedding M&A as part of the organisation DNA in its transformation journey," said Harish H V, partner in consultancy firm Grant Thornton.

In February, Infosys acquired US-based automation technology company Panaya for $200 million (over Rs 1,200 crore) with a valuation that was six times the multiple of Panaya's revenues. The M&A momentum has come following Sikka's appointment of former SAP colleague Ritika Suri as the M&A head in December.

Infosys's largest buyout happened in 2012 when it acquired Zurich-based consulting firm Lodestone for $345 million.

Under Sikka, Infosys is actively scouting for startups to bring a differentiated proposition to its service offerings. The company has also just invested $2 million in air quality monitoring startup Airviz for a minority stake. The venture was spun out of Carnegie Mellon University.

Airviz Speck uses patent-pending technology from Carnegie Mellon University that helps individuals identify health hazards related to air quality. Infosys's investment was made out of the $500 million Innovation Fund that it established last year to invest in startups working in areas like artificial intelligence, automation, internet of things, collaboration and design technologies. The company made its first investment from that fund recently when it put $15 million into a spin-off of DreamWorks Animation.

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