Industry news

Australian infrastructure firm UGL Ltd have bought UK consultancy DTZ Holdings for 77.5 million pounds ($121 million), in a move to expand its corporate property services and capture growth in China.

The deal would give UGL combined annual revenues of A$5.1 billion ($5.2 billion) and was expected to be marginally earnings per share accretive from fiscal year 2012, UGL said.

NICE Systems Ltd. has acquired California-based service and sales performance management solutions provider Merced Systems Inc. for $150 million.

NICE will also pay up to $20 million in cash subject to Merced meeting certain performance targets. NICE expects to close the acquisition during the first quarter of 2012. NICE expects Merced to add $55 million to 2012 to its non-GAAP revenue and $0.10 earning per share in 2012.

Merced provides software as a service (SaaS) Service Performance Management solution provides performance analytics and dashboards, service coaching, incentive management and real-time reporting for enterprise service personnel. Its Sales Performance Management provides incentive and quota management, performance analytics and dashboards, sales development and coaching, and other analytics solutions.

Big Ambition is an innovative programme that seeks to attract teenagers towards education and careers in IT. It focuses on helping 14 to 19-year-olds make informed decisions in a way that is accessible and interesting.

Internet for Business (IFB) has been chosen to take part in a video project that encourages school-leavers into a career in IT. Thirty-two companies have been selected to create a case study in a four-minute video. Each film focuses on the day-to-day running of the company, and gives viewers an insight into what working for IFB would involve.

IFB operations director Graeme Gordon said: “It is great that we have the opportunity to encourage young people to join our industry. IFB is a forward-thinking, rapidly-growing organisation and this provides us with the ability to offer the highest levels of service and training and it is fantastic that we have the chance to inspire people to join the industry.”

Capita is to handle the BBC's TV licensing collection and administration for another eight years.

The deal, which comes into force in July, is expected to be worth about £560m to Capita but it will also save the BBC more than £220m over the contract.

Zarin Patel, BBC chief financial officer, said: "Capita's bid was the best both in terms of innovation and efficiencies and so offered best value for money."

SA can take advantage of Europe’s economic climate to become a top destination for business process outsourcing, including call centres, according to Full Circle CEO Franco Cotumaccio.

With the uncertainty in Europe, companies were looking to outsource call centres to cheaper labour centres and SA could benefit.

Earlier this year, US online retail giant Amazon said it would expand its call-centre operations in Cape Town, creating 1400 jobs by the end of next year.

Full Circle was established in 2005 and helps international companies to move their call centres offshore. Mr Cotumaccio said on Wednesday that SA had a "rich proposition" globally that put it at an advantage ahead of peer countries such as India.

Accenture and Enbridge Gas Distribution Inc., an affiliate of Enbridge Inc. have signed a new business process outsourcing (BPO) services agreement that extends their existing customer services contract for an additional five years, to 2017. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Under the extended agreement, originally signed in 2007, Accenture will continue to provide outsourcing services related to billing, payment processing, back office, call centre and collections functions. These services will be provided through Accenture’s Global Delivery Network.

The Press Association and Express KCS have formed a partnership to offer outsourced print and digital advertising production to newspaper publishers.

It means that PA, which already provides ready-made editorial pages to newspapers, will be able to include high-quality ads in its packages as well.

Standard Life has announced it will cut a further 69 jobs in IT, facilities and telephony in an effort to meet its promised £100 million cost savings pledge by the year’s end.

The latest cuts come after the firm announced it would axe 95 jobs in its customer services departments in Edinburgh and Glasgow earlier this month.

Overall 179 jobs in Edinburgh are affected by yesterday’s announcement, although the change will see 37 jobs created, which are expected to be filled internally. A further 17 jobs in the company’s network and telephony division are being transferred to BT

In his autumn statement, Chancellor George Osborne announced £5bn of spending on infrastructure projects such as roads, railways and broadband networks.

£100m of that is set to boost broadband coverage across 10 cities including London, Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff. Six other cities will be announced later.

"For the first time we are identifying over 500 infrastructure projects we want to see built over the next decade and beyond. Roads, railways, airport capacity, power stations, waste facilities, broadband networks," the chancellor told the House of Commons.

Private equity firms Blackstone Group and Bain Capital are preparing a bid for all of Yahoo with Asian partners in a deal that could value the web portal at about $25bn (£16bn).

The plan follows smaller bids made by consortia including Microsoft tabled earlier this week which valued the web portal at just $20bn. The Microsoft bid was the lower of two.

New Yahoo bid ups price to $25bnPrivate equity firms Blackstone Group and Bain Capital reported to be working with Alibaba to make full bid for web portal that would value above earlier bids by Microsoft and others