IBM to Expand in India; Will it Buy an Indian Outsourcer? (IBM, CSCO)

"Slash" submits: Indian newspapers are reporting that IBM has purchased land in Bangalore. IBM CEO Sam Palmisano was recently in India on a not-so-well-publicised visit.

Unlike Cisco's (ticker: CSCO) recent announcement that it would spend $800M in India, IBM seems to prefer to keep things quiet for now. As IBM has been on a firing binge in Europe and America, the expansion in India would not sit well with some.

Given that IBM Services bookings were lighter than most expectations, I do not think there are any doubts that IBM will expand in India to get the growth rate of its services business higher and make that business more profitable at the same time. I would not be surprised if IBM acquired some of the Indian players in the field also.

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