Hughes Software Systems (India) mulls Nasdaq float and employees stock option scheme
HSS Website.
hssworld.com
vip:
Hotdamn I need to get some these whether HSS is IPOed in India or Nasdaq,looks like a hot mother to me. You know much about it? Anybody?
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(Friday, June 11, 1999)
Anjan Mitra in New Delhi
Hughes Software Systems (HSS), a subsidiary of Hughes Network Systems and a group company of General Motors-Hughes Electronics of the US, is planning to go public either through an IPO in India or by getting itself listed on the Nasdaq.
HSS also proposes to have a formal employees stock option scheme (Esop) in India. At present, it has a "phantom Esop scheme" whereby senior staffers out of the total 700 are given, as incentives, stock which has notional value.
Sources in the Gurgaon-headquartered HSS said the company has plans to go public after it gets a "clearance from the parent in the US".
They said that after the initial offer proposal is through, the company will start working on the Esop scheme "to which HSS is committed even now". The scheme is expected to be in place by 2003 before which the company has to go public.
76 per cent equity stake in HSS is held by Hughes Electronics, while 24 per cent shareholding is with venture capital funds. The ISO 9001 company set up shop in India in 1992 with an investment of over $26 million.
HSS sources said it still has not been decided the quantum that will be offloaded to the public.
HSS' turnover has grown at an average annual rate of over 70 per cent during its existence period in India and now is a company totally focussed solely on communications and electronic commerce software.
HSS investments in India is a continuing process for which it needs additional funds too. Last year it set up a separate Internet development centre in Bangalore with an investment of about $2 million.
The centre aims to maximise HSS' capabilities in developing products and solutions based on the Internet.
The company also plans to launch a slew of cyber products that integrate network solutions with advanced web technologies for use by telecom operators, Internet service providers and telecom equipment suppliers.
Earlier this week, HSS had announced the launch of its H.323 and media gateway control protocol-based software offerings to enable telecom companies, OEMs and service providers to offer voice solutions over IP.
The company is shipping its H.323 stack product suite to facilitate communication network worldwide in utilising the Internet as well as LAN-based intranets to transmit voice, video and real-time data.
HSS has also launched the offering of the broadband V5 stack for the access network and service node and the broadband SS7 stack for the network side.
The broadband products from HSS will facilitate communication companies worldwide to evolve into broadband networks, capable of providing higher bandwidth for delivering integrated voice, video and data communications. |
