After his unceremonious exit from Infosys last year, Phaneesh Murthy is now back with a bang. Indian software services firm iGATE Global Solutions (earlier known as Mascot Systems) will acquire a 51 per cent stake in financial software services startup firm Quintant Services Ltd for Rs 86.9 crore. Murthy, who was head of global sales and director of Infosys, will be its new chief executive officer (CEO).The Rs 371-crore iGATE Global Solutions, a unit of US-based iGATE Corp founded by Sunil Wadhwani, has also agreed to acquire the remaining stake in Quintant if certain conditions are met, the Bombay Stock Exchange said, without elaborating.Under the agreement, which marks iGATE’s foray into the booming business process outsourcing sector, the company will have access to Quintant’s Rs 68 crore in assets, including Rs 60 crore in cash. Quintant senior advisor Phaneesh Murthy, who was sacked from Infosys on sexual harassment charges, will join iGATE Global’s board.Quintant plans to offer high-end analytical services. It secured $30 million in venture capital funding in March — one of the largest early-stage fundings of 2003.‘‘We’re getting a great team, dynamite expertise, great intellectual property. You take iGATE Global Solutions presence and brand, add to that Quintant team and put Phaneesh on top, and you have all the ingredients to create one of the leading companies in the industry,’’ says Wadhwani. iGATE is a 3,000 people organisation. ‘‘It’s nice to be back,’’ said Murthy. ‘‘iGATE has some focus on financial services whereas the Quintant team was entirely focussed on financial services and it lends a lot more muscle to take on larger IT cum services orders in the global financial services market,’’ he added. Murthy is looking to carry iGATE to a place of pre-eminence in the Indian IT services industry. ‘‘This merger makes tremendous amount of sense. iGATE is represented in five continents; it has 400 customers, it has a full fledged sales force. From all perspectives, it looks like a great thing, We can take out our intellectual properties and leverage the iGATE brand and go up the value chain and become a pre-eminent player in IT services space in India,’’ he told television channel CNBC.
