Indian tech giant Infosys buys Israeli firm for $200m

In one of the biggest tech deals between the two countries ever, India tech service firm Infosys announced Monday that it was buying Panaya, an Israeli cloud tech firm that helps customers upgrade databases and make them more efficient. The deal, Infosys said, was worth $200 million.

With Panaya’s technology, the Indian firm said, Infosys will be able to offer upgraded services to customers using databases like SAP and Oracle. The acquisition, said Infosys, “uniquely positions us to bring automation to several of its service lines via an agile software as a service model, and helps mitigate risk, reduce costs and shorten time to market for clients.”

Multi-billion dollar Infosys is one of India’s biggest companies, providing back-office services for many US and European companies. Among its customers are firms in banking, finance, insurance, manufacturing, and many other areas, with the company providing programming services, data maintenance and entry, database maintenance, and other information technology areas.

Established in 2007, Panaya specializes in helping large enterprises get over the “hump” of upgrading or making changes to databases. The company’s CloudQuality platform, in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) space, analyzes changes that are to be installed and indicates whether they are compatible with existing programs and routines, ensuring that the data keeps flowing and regular operations can continue.

Israel and India have extensive ties, mostly in the area of defense systems and agricultural technology. While there have been several tech deals, the Infosys purchase is the largest one ever. This was the second mega-deal in Israel in just a week; last Thursday, it was reported that Microsoft was set to buy Israeli digital pen technology firm N-trig for $200 million as well.

Last May, India brought its largest-ever business delegation to participate in Tel Aviv MIXiii 2014, Israel’s biggest annual tech event. Ms. Vani Rao, Deputy Chief of Mission in the Embassy of India, said that “Israel and India already do a lot of business in several areas, including agriculture and diamonds, with the latter accounting for about half the current $5 billion in trade between our countries.” But Indian companies were beginning to look beyond the “traditional” areas of business. “Interest in Israel from the information technology sector has been increasing in recent years as well, with Indian companies seeking to partner with Israeli start-up and veteran companies on development projects.”

That interest has now paid off in a mega-deal with Panaya, with a Ra’anana-based R&D center that employs about half the company’s 200 employees. The advanced technology supplied by the Israeli firm will not only improve business for Infosys, said CEO and Managing Director Dr. Vishal Sikka; it will actually make the lives of workers easier. “The acquisition of Panaya is a key step in renewing and differentiating our service lines,” he said. “This will help amplify the potential of our people, freeing us from the drudgery of many repetitive tasks, so we may focus more on the important, strategic challenges faced by our clients. At the same time, Panaya’s proven technology helps dramatically simplify the costs and complexities faced by businesses in managing their enterprise application landscapes.”

Doron Gerstel, CEO, Panaya, Inc. said that his company “is excited about leveraging Infosys’ global reach, service footprint and broad customer base to deliver compelling, simplifying, value to clients. I am confident this integrated proposition will uniquely position Infosys as the services leader in the enterprise application services market.”