Industry news

AA and Saga look to split after their owners Acromas prepares for a future break-up.

The move comes as Acromas, worth £9 billion, brings in accountants to assess the future of the business. A division of AA and Saga would see the end of a £6.7 billion merger completed in 2007.

Insiders speaking to the Independent pointed to accountancy firm Ernst & Young as being involved in the planned split, however Acromas downplayed talk, saying: "There are no current plans to either sell part of or float the business. We remain focused on delivering excellent service for the customers of both AA and Saga."

Chinese online services Alibaba Group have invested $200 million into their Aliyun OS as a separate new business venture.

The investment will be used to fund the creation of Aliyun OS as a new business unit along with expanding infrastructure, technology and technical staff.

The news of the investment comes from a leaked internal email from Alibaba’s CEO.

A manufacturing facility owned by Foxconn, a major Apple supplier, was the location of a riot involving 2,000 workers.

The “incident” occurred on Sunday night and according to Foxconn related to a personal dispute which then escalated.

Foxconn stated that: “According to police, some 40 individuals were taken to the hospital for medical attention and a number of individuals were arrested".

Business Secretary Vince Cable will announce plans today to provide £1 billion in funding for businesses loans aimed at SMEs.

The fund will help to establish a business bank, tasked with helping struggling small and medium business, which have faced difficulty in securing loans from other high street banks.

Vince Cable said yesterday: "The government understands the frustration felt by many small- and medium-sized businesses around securing credit, especially from the big four retail banks. Many new, promising, growing companies simply can't get the loans they need to expand on reasonable terms.

International ICT services firm Getronics have received a £10 million extension on their contract to provide IT systems to Bid Shopping.

Bid Shopping, the UK's first-ever live auction TV shopping channel, hosts much of their critical IT systems in Getronics’ data centre.

The agreement will see Getronics staff and Bid Shopping’s own IT services department working together to develop a flexible IT system.

Utilities giant E.ON has signed a five year contract with Capgemini, worth €50 million, to provide services for a transformation project. The contract will see staff from E.ON embedded within Capgemini.

The contract will see E.ON provide services for Capgemini’s business intelligence systems and application software.

E.ON has previously provided services to Capgemini, with a IT transition services contract in 2011.

Oracle has reported first quarter net income of $2 billion, up by 11 percent, while revenue fell by 2 percent.

While engineered systems combining Oracle services grew by over 100 percent, hardware system revenues fell by 24 percent as the IT giant defocused on community server services.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, said: “"A little more than a week from now we will announce lots of enhancements to the Oracle Cloud."

Electronic Arts (EA) is planning to employ 300 workers in its Irish facility, with the videogame maker already employing 400 workers in the Irish studio.

The investment comes with government support and represents a setback to the UK which has also sought to encourage video game investment.

EA COO Peter Moore, said: “Galway's mix of technology infrastructure and talent availability, combined with a pro-business environment, will help us expand on our existing foundation here."

The UK government are to invest a total of £114 million in providing superfast broadband to ten cities.

The new wireless broadband service of 80-100Mbps comes as part of the government’s move towards improved digital communications across the country and high speed broadband by 2015.

Secretary of state for culture and media, Maria Miller, said: “Fast broadband is essential for growth, and is key to the country’s economic future.”

The recent appointment of a new democratically elected president and prime minister is important to ITIDA because Egypt is being acknowledged as an attractive and dynamic destination for investors once more– a fact that is bound to help Egypt’s outsourcing industry.

For instance, new investments expanded and increased employment in the BPO-ITO sector by 41% in the past 18 months. HP, for example, has expanded its presence in the region and major multinationals including France Telecom and Intel have moved in and grown their Egyptian operations. Vodafone already has call centers in Egypt, and the Vodafone Ventures Fund (VVF) plans to invest more than US$ 3 million into 10 – 15 start-up companies working in technology and communications. VVF will provide the technical and technological support services for these companies through an incubation center at Vodafone’s headquarters in Smart Village, Cairo.

The Egyptian IT Service providers have been maintaining healthy growth margins as well, the data from the last round of Export IT Rebate program announced in January 2012, showed that 76 of the Egyptian providers are actively exporting to 80 countries, serving more than 500 clients, including more than 45 of the Fortune 1000, Forbes 2000, and Arab 100 companies.

I have been the CEO of ITIDA for nearly two years now, and I still find it exciting working for an organization that is driving Egypt’s IT outsourcing industry - because there is simply so much opportunity for growth in the region based on Egypt’s value proposition.

Egypt wants to offer foreign investors an abundance of world-class IT talent and a strong IT infrastructure, in an ideal geographical location at competitive prices.

I am experiencing a real sense of confidence in Egypt’s proposition right now. However, while Egypt’s future looks positive, there is still much work to be done, both at home and abroad. President Morsi’s administration is focused on economic and business policies that will revitalize investment. For example, the Government is committed to spending US$ 500 million on developing and modernizing Egypt’s network - so that the country can deliver fourth generation broadband connectivity.

Last week, Thomas Nides, the US Deputy Secretary of State for management and resources brought a high profile delegation of US officials and business people to Smart Village, promising more US investments in the region. With the Egyptian Minister for Communications and Information Technology, I had the privilege of attending talks with the delegates around what those investments might be, and we certainly have a number of attractive opportunities in the pipeline.

This endorsement from Secretary Nides, is exactly the support Egypt needs right now. After a period of uncertainty we are back, stronger than ever, and doing great work with our international business partners.

Jamal Muharram, the President of American Chamber of Commerce in Cairo, also used the visit to confirm that IBM wants to expand its existing IT operations in Egypt and that nearly a hundred US businesses are currently looking at investing in the country.

I am also spreading the word, attending forums and conferences in Europe and North America talking about why Egypt is an attractive outsourcing destination. There is certainly a buzz about the new direction of our country, and I welcome you to come to Egypt to see it for yourself.