TCS becomes world's 9th largest software company

MUMBAI: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has become the world's ninth-largest software services company in terms of revenues, its chairman, Ratan Tata, told shareholders at the company's fifth annual general meeting on Friday.

The big daddies in the global IT industry include IBM with revenues of $96 billion, Microsoft ($58 billion) and Accenture ($22 billion).

For the $6.3 billion-TCS, the focus now ‘‘would be to climb the value chain in a bid to differentiate its services from competition,'' said Tata, who would step down from the chairmanship of the IT major in the next couple of years.

Several shareholders wanted to know how long Tata, who stood for re-appointment as director on the board of TCS, would continue as chairman. They suggested that like several other industrialists in India Inc, he should continue on the board as long as possible. Tata told shareholders: ‘‘As far as I am concerned, I won't sit here as ex-chairman.''

TCS was started as a division of Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata group, in 1968 to service the in-house electronic data processing needs. The company today is the largest software services firm in the country.

In a bid to be part of the top league, the company has been bagging clients across geographies, building domain expertise, besides adding on a large number of employees.