Bengaluru: Don Callahan may be an unfamiliar name to many in India, but for companies in the country’s $150 billion outsourcing business, the head of operations and technology at Citigroup Inc. could be quite the game-changer.

Callahan will decide the winner of the largest outsourcing contract up for grabs in close to a decade. The last time the contract was awarded, in 2008, it was worth $2.5 billion for a 10-year period.

Wipro has sold off energy services business EcoEnergy to the Indian arm of United Technologies Corporation for an estimated Rs 465 crore as part of its strategy to exit noncore businesses.

Wipro said it was a strategic decision to divest from the energy business as the software major would focus on core IT services business. Both the companies signed a pact on Wednesday. In last financial year, EcoEnergy contributed nearly Rs 67.6 crore to the company’s overall revenue and its net worth was Rs 15.6 crore.

Shares of two information technology (IT) majors Infosys (Rs 994) and Wipro (Rs 454) hit their respective 52-week lows on BSE in intra-day trade on Friday.

At 11:22 am, Wipro was down 0.59% at Rs 460 and Infosys down 0.57% at Rs 1,000, as compared to 0.01% fall in the S&P BSE Sensex. Both these stocks have underperform the market post July-September (Q2FY17) results.

MUMBAI: Wipro’s $500 million of cloud services company Appirio was not just to gain access to its cloud-integration business, it was also part of a bet that the IT industry would be disrupted the way cab-hailing company Uber disrupted the transport sector. Buried inside Appirio is a crowdsourcing platform for developers and data scientists called TopCoder. Clients contact the platform with their IT requirements and with a budget.

Mirroring the subdued mood currently prevalent in the Indian IT industry, Wipro too posted flat revenue growth for the three months to September with net profit rising marginally due to cost optimisation measures and higher utilisation of its employees. Wipro’s net profit at the end of the second quarter rose 2.6% in dollar terms sequentially and the expectation for the December quarter is also muted, with the IT major providing a revenue growth guidance of 0-2%.

Wipro has acquired Appirio, a US-based company that helps companies implement cloud applications like Salesforce and Workday, for $500 million (Rs 3,325 crore).

Appirio, which has large offshore presence, is Wipro’s second purchase after Abidali Neemuchwala took over as chief executive of India’s third largest software exporter. The deal will help Wipro gain expertise in implementing applications on the cloud and for newer clients like Facebook, eBay and Home Depot.

Wipro, India's third largest software exporter is expected to see subdued growth and see pressure on margins in the second quarter.

Wipro, which is expected to post results on Friday, has 0-1 per cent sequential growth in revenue; while pointing to factors like uncertainties in the BFSI vertical, continued weakness in energy vertical may arrest its revenue growth towards the lower end of the range.

Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting, the FMCG arm of Wirpo Enterprises, on Thursday announced that it has entered a definitive agreement to acquire 100 per cent shareholding in Zhongshan-based Ma Er to boost its presence in the fast growing toiletries and liquid detergent space in South China.

The deal ,which is expected to gain regulatory approvals by the end of October ,will be the company's second largest acquisition after Unza Holdings Ltd., that it acquired back in 2007 for $246 million. Wipro did not disclose the financials of the deal citing a confidentiality agreement with the seller.

Software services firm Wipro has bagged a three-year IT contract from NSB Group, one of Norway’s largest transportation groups.

As part of the agreement, Wipro will implement its datacenter (BLDC) and workspace solutions and utilise its delivery framework to deliver services that will help NSB variablise their IT operations, Wipro said in a statement.

Wipro shares hit their fresh 52-week low of Rs 613 in Friday’s trade on the Bombay Stock Exchange. According to Thomson Reuters data, a block deal of 1.73 lakh shares changed hands at Rs 500.30 on the BSE on Friday. At 3.00 pm, shares of Wipro were trading 2.91 per cent down at Rs 490.40. The scrip opened the day at Rs 504.90 and has touched a high and low of Rs 506.35 and Rs 488, respectively, in trade so far. Benchmark Sensex was trading 59.72 points down at 27,776.19.

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