Wipro invests $ 30 mn for minority stake in big data firm Opera Solutions

BANGALORE: Software exporter Wipro said it is investing $ 30 million for a minority stake in New Jersey headquartered big data analytics firm, Opera Solutions.

This is first time in recent history that Wipro has announced a minority investment in a technology firm as opposed to an outright acquisition. ET had reported last month that Wipro was looking at investing in smaller firms with interesting technological capabilities.

Big data refers to the huge explosion of data, mostly from unstructured sources such as sensors and social networks. Analytics on this data is one of the fastest growing new business segments and also a potentially large market for the future, along with mobility and social. The announcement came after market hours on a day shares of Wipro fell 1.5% to Rs 351.70.

“This strategic partnership combines Opera Solutions’ machine learning expertise, pre-discovered predictive signals and algorithms with Wipro’s proven domain and technology expertise,” said K.R Sanjiv, Senior Vice President and Global Head, Analytics and Information Management, Wipro. Opera CEO Arnab Gupta termed the Wipro partnership as a great fit between the ability to deliver end-to-end services and its ability to scale and industrialise big data science.

The US firm has one of the industry's largest groups of scientists specialising in machine learning in the private domain, Wipro said in its notice to the stock exchanges. The ability of a machine to learn from repeated tasks is also a hot area in which few firms have capabilities.

Recently, second largest software exporter Infosys signed a partnership with IPSoft, another firm which has machine learning capability in areas like network infrastructure management. With machines handling repetitive tasks, people resources can be freed up for more high value tasks.