" We are creating a keiretsu of e-services companies.." Ashok Trivedi
Mastech Unveils Plans to Become E-services Co.
Silicon India News Bureau
Tuesday, March 07, 2000
By Bala Murali Krishna
Mastech Corporation is reinventing itself for what it calls the e-Services era.
The company's founders, Ashok Trivedi and Sunil Wadhwani, today unveiled a plan to split the company initially into nine operating subsidiaries, four of which are totally new, and also renamed the company iGate Capital Corporation.
"We have taken some really bold steps and transformed Mastech and fundamentally changed the business model of the company," Trivedi told siliconindia.
But what ignited iGate shares, which now trade on the Nasdaq under the new symbol of IGTE, was the announcement of a $75 million venture fund, iGate Ventures, which adopts the business model of hugely successful incubator companies CMGI and Internet Capital Group.
"We are creating a keiretsu of e-services companies that will build on their core competencies and also leverage off each other's strengths," Trivedi said. The company proposes to add $300 million to the fund and spin off six units into separate public companies by the end of this year.
In Nasdaq trading, iGate shares rose almost 50 percent to close at $64.18.
Mastech's founders first posed the strategic change six months ago because they thought "the Internet revolution is only beginning" and raced to put it in place three months ago, Trivedi said.
The nine operating subsidiaries are:
1. Emplifi Consulting (enterprise Web integration)
2. Mascot Systems (Web-focused offshore services)
3. Enterprise Network Solutions (network consulting
4. eJiva (customer care/Internet trading)
5. Symphoni (Web marketing)
6. IRG Inc (business intelligence/information data management)
7. iGate Europe (Web integration services)
8. iProcess (Web-based business process outsourcing)
9. Extranet (e-vendor management)
The overall e-Services market is projected to grow from $13 billion in 1999 to almost $80 billion by 2003.
iGate, of Pittsburgh, is a global corporation with operations in five continents. Last year, it reported revenues of $470 million. |
