Infosys abandons Axon bid

Bad tidyings for outsourcing sector as Infosys pulls out of bid for UK firm and slashes growth forecasts

Infosys has sent shudders through the outsourcing market by slashing growth forecasts and pulling out of its bid for UK-based IT services firm Axon.

India’s second biggest offshore outsourcing firm has aborted its attempt to buy the London-listed SAP specialist, stating it would not match the £441m bid tabled by rival HCL.

And in a blow to the market, Infosys chopped its full-year revenue growth forecasts from between 19 to 20 per cent to between 13.1 and 15.2 per cent.

Infosys’ fiscal year runs until March and although it reported a 19 per cent growth for its second quarter to September, it said it expected third quarter revenues to be flat.

It is not the first time in recent days that the impact of the financial meltdown on the IT services market has been thrown into sharp relief.

Last week, business applications big daddy SAP shocked onlookers by admitting it had seen a sudden drop in sales in September (Channelweb, 7 October).