Sify close to deal with travel service co, plans more JVs
Well you can either bitch about it or go with the flow and hopefully get off before the music stops is all I am going to say.
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Harshad Oke
MUMBAI 21 DECEMBER
SATYAM Infoway just can't stay still. The company is close to striking a deal with a leading travel services company to offer business-to-consumer travel services. To be structured as a joint venture, it is believed that the deal might be shaped along the lines of the recently struck ICICI e-banking deal. Sify would provide the e-infrastructure, with its partner offering nation-wide travel-related expertise.
However, this could be just the first part of Sify's attempts at becoming the leading e-commerce platform provider in India. Focusing primarily on B2C, Sify's also looking for similar deals in the retail and entertainment space. Sources said, "Satyam Infoway has set up an internal task force to explore possible deals. The group has been given the brief to look for growth opportunities which will help strengthen its core business. However, the deals in the making would neither be of the same magnitude as the Rs 499-crore two-phase buyout of Indiaworld and its suite of 13 portals nor will they take the same shape.
Said a source, "The key reason for the Indiaworld deal was to acquire a content footprint." Now, the onus on Sify is to build a bouquet of B2C offerings through JVs, strategic alliances or partnerships.
Though at a preliminary stage, Sify has set itself a timetable of 12 months to build its stable of e-commerce offerings.
In the past, Sify had tied-up similar deals with Apollo Hospitals in the healthcare space, and with Penguin India in publishing.
Sify is also pushing hard in the business-to-business e-commerce space. It already has www.seekandsource.com , its e-marketplace portal. In a low-key launch, Sify has already launched an e-marketplace aimed at the light engineering industry which it plans to scale up shortly. However, in B2B, Sify will restrict its role to that of an infrastructure provider and does not plan to go in for any kind of investment activities.
At the infrastructural level, Sify is planning to deploy a total bandwidth of 192 mbps across eight international gateways. The company is awaiting final security approvals from the government to set up its international gateways. The gateway in Mumbai will be the primary locations with cable connectivity, while the other seven gateways will be hooked through satellite. Sify is in talks with satellite company Loral Orion and another satellite company to link up its gateway network.
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