Lodestone to be acquired by Infosys for $350 million

BANGALORE: Struggling outsourcing bellwether Infosys has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Zurich-based SAP implementation and management consultancy Lodestone, for about $350 million, the company said in an early morning announcement on Monday.

Lodestone, with 850 employees including 750 consultants comes with about 200 clients across manufacturing ,automotive and Life Sciences verticals. Post acquisition, Infosys will have about a billion dollars coming from its SAP practice.

"A Key plank of our Infosys 3.0 strategy is to expand out consulting and systems integration business. This acquisition fits perfectly into that strategy. Lodestone and Infosys share a culture of unwavering focus on nurturing and maintaining client trust," chief executive SD Shibulal, said in a statement filed with the stock exchanges.

With about $4 billion of cash on its books, investors were pushing Infosys to do an acquisition. Lagging industry for nearly a year, Infosys was struggling to grow revenues in a highly competitive outsourcing market.

Linklaters LLP was the legal advisor for Infosys while UBS AG was the financial advisor. Baker and McKenzie advised Lodestone.