TCS acquires BridgePoint Group

Tata Consultancy Services, a leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions organization announced the acquisition of BridgePoint Group, LLC, and a US management consulting firm catering to the financial services industry, and specializing in retirement services, through the purchase of select company assets.

This acquisition augments TCS’ financial services and insurance domain knowledge, particularly in the area of US retirement services, where BridgePoint team of experts currently provide strategic insights and advisory services around growth, business agility, customer experience and technical transformation. TCS currently partners with eight of the top 10 US Banking, Financial services and Insurance Institutions, and offers retirement services across the globe.

BridgePoint entire management team and key experts will join TCS. Their deep customer relationships and significant industry knowledge adds to TCS’ ability to provide digital solutions that enhance sponsor and participant experience, and drive Business 4.0 transformations in the $1 trillion US retirement services market.

The US retirement business is complex, so Bridge Point’s deep industry expertise and team of highly experienced consultants will enable TCS to develop a robust customer-focused retirement services business.

Sun Pharma to acquire Pola Pharma

Sun Pharma will acquire Japan based Polo Pharma for around $1 Million to strengthen its presence in dermatology segment across the globe. The company has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Pola Pharma, which is engaged in research and development, manufacture, sale and distribution of branded and generic products in Japan.

Pola Pharma portfolio mainly comprises dermatology products. It has two manufacturing facilities in Saitama with capabilities to manufacture topical products and injectables. It also has R&D capabilities to develop new technologies and formulations. Pola Pharma is a leading dermatology company and it will help Sun Pharma launch our specialty and generic dermatology products in the Japanese market in future.

Sun Pharma forayed into the Japanese prescription market in 2016, with the acquisition of 14 established prescription brands from Novartis. The size of the Japanese pharmaceutical market is estimated at $84.8 billion, accounting for around 7.5% of the $1.13-trillion global pharmaceutical market.

Apple acquires Silk Labs

Apple’s HomePod is a distant third behind Amazon and Google when it comes to market share for smart speakers that double up as home hubs, with less than 5 percent share of the market for these devices in the U.S. And its flagship personal assistant, Siri, has also been determined to lag behind Google when it comes to comprehension and precision. But there are signs that the company is intent on doubling down on AI, putting it at the center of its next generation of products, and it’s using acquisitions to help it do so.

Apple has quietly acquired Silk Labs, a startup based out of San Francisco that had worked on AI-based personal assistant technology both for home hubs and mobile devices. There are two notable things about Silk’s platform that set it apart from that of other assistants: it was able to modify its behavior as it learned more about its users over time (both using sound and vision), and it was designed to work on-device — a nod to privacy and concerns about “always on” speakers listening to you, improved processing on devices and the constraints of the cloud and networking technology.

Silk Labs first product was originally conceived as integrated software and hardware: the company raised just under $165,000 in a Kickstarter to build and ship Sense, a smart speaker that would provide a way to control connected home devices and answer questions, and — with a camera integrated into the device — be able to monitor rooms and learn to recognize people and their actions.

Silk Labs announced that it would shelve the Sense hardware to focus specifically on the software, called Silk, after it said it started to receive inquiries from OEMs interested in getting a version of the platform to run on their own devices (it also raised money outside of Kickstarter, around $4 million). Potentially, Silk could give those OEMs a way of differentiating from the plethora of devices that are already on the market.

Cure.fit acquires Seraniti

Health and Fitness startup CureFit has acquired integrated mental wellness platform Seraniti. CureFit has rebranded Seraniti clinics at Bengaluru and Pune as Mind.fit, which offers online, and offline yoga, meditation and therapy services.

Seraniti was founded in 2016 by mental health practitioner. It offers psychotherapy services through 15 in-house professionals. Its team assesses the users' requirement and matches them to the right therapist. Users can then book an appointment. Seraniti claims it undertakes about 500 sessions a month in Bengaluru and Pune.

The Seraniti app is no longer available for users. Seraniti customers will be transitioned to the Mind.fit fold and will have access to yoga and meditation centres and do-it-yourself tutorials. They can now book appointments though the Cure.fit app.

Mind.fit claims to be India’s largest yoga chain with a membership of about 11,000, conducting 160 classes a day across its over 70 centres. CureFit is backed by venture capital firms Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital and Chiratae Ventures, which was previously known as IDG Ventures India. It formally launched the flagship Cure.fit mobile app in May last year. 

Another offering is Cult.fit, which runs offline centres that offer equipment-less workouts including strength and conditioning exercises, spinning, boxing, mixed martial arts, zumba and yoga. Eat.fit is its subscription-based food delivery vertical while Mind.fit focuses on yoga and meditation. Its latest offering, Care.fit, offers a digital platform for doctors and health checkups.

Microsoft to acquire XOXCO

Microsoft announced its intent to acquire Xoxco, an Austin-based software developer with a focus on bot design, making it the fourth AI-related company Microsoft has purchased this year.

Xoxco, which was founded in 2009 — long before most of us were thinking about conversational bots — has raised $1.5 million. It began working on bots in 2013, and is credited with developing the first bot for Slack to help schedule meetings. The companies did not reveal the price, but it fits nicely with Microsoft’s overall acquisition strategy this year, and an announcement today involving a new bot building tool to help companies build conversational bots more easily.

When you call into a call center these days, or even interact on chat, chances are your initial interaction is with a conversational bot, rather than a human. Microsoft is trying to make it easier for developers without AI experience to tap into Microsoft’s expertise on the Azure platform (or by downloading the bot framework from its newly acquired GitHub).

Microsoft also released guidelines for companies that are building chatbots, encouraging them to make sure they are “responsible and trustworthy,” a nod to past problems involving the technology reacting in unexpected ways. Microsoft, for instance, received criticism for its Tay chat bot that fielded offensive comments from online trolls and then repeated them.

Cipla to acquire Avenue Therapeutics

Cipla has entered into an agreement to acquire US based specialty Pharma Company Avenue Therapeutics Inc. for $215 Million. This is in line with Cipla strategy of building a specialty drugs pipeline in the US.

Cipla's US subsidiary InvaGen Pharmaceuticals Inc. will make the acquisition in two stages. In the first stage, InvaGen or its affiliates will acquire a 33.3 per cent stake in Avenue's via new shares for around $35 mn (currently expected to be 5,833,333 shares at $6.00 per share).

Avenue is working on the development and commercialization of intravenous Tramadol, an analgesic to treat pain in adults. There is currently no approved intravenous formulation in the US. Avenue is evaluating IV Tramadol in Phase 3 clinical program: a trial in patients following bunionectomy surgery has been completed and a safety study is ongoing. A pivotal Phase 3 trial in patients following abdominoplasty surgery is expected to commence later this year in 2018.

Cipla, which trails only Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd among Indian drug makers by market value, has been streamlining its operations globally, acquiring products and businesses in some regions while also shedding some units to sharpen focus on core areas.

Mphasis acquires US based Stelligent

Mid-size information Technology Company Mphasis announced acquisition of a US based technology services player Stelligent for $25 Million in an all-cash deal. Established in 2007, the Reston, Virginia- headquartered Stelligent specializes in ‘DevOps automation’ on Amazon Web Services (AWS), the online retail giant’s cloud offering.

The company is a premier consulting partner on AWS Partner Network (APN) and holds both AWS DevOps and financial services expertise in deploying their customers’ applications on AWS with greater speed, agility, and security.

For the uninitiated, DevOps is a software development methodology that combines software development with information technology operations. The goal of DevOps is to shorten the systems development life cycle while also delivering features, fixes, and updates frequently in close alignment with business objectives.

Mphasis has earlier acquired Wyde (2011) and Fortify Infrastructure Services (2010). Wyde is an international software vendor and creator of Wynsure — an industry leading insurance policy administration solution whereas Fortify Infrastructure Services is a leading global provider of comprehensive end-to-end Remote IT Operations and Management (ROM) solutions.

TCS acquires W12 Studios

Infotech (IT) firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has acquired London based digital design company W12 Studios for an undisclosed sum, marking its first digital acquisition. W12 Studios will be a part of TCS Interactive, which is the digital division of the IT service provider’s business and technology services unit.

With its bold, provocative and visionary approach to design, W12 Studios adds to TCS Interactive portfolio of services as it helps the world’s leading brands innovate, create and deliver unique digital experiences across the entire user journey.

W12 Studios, founded in 2012 by chief executive Fabian Birgfeld and creative chief Michael Albers will retain its current name, branding and location in London's historic Metropolitan Wharf in Wapping. The duo will continue to lead W12 Studios and keep their current roles.

TCS, which became the first Indian company in April to cross $100 billion in market value, is also looking at newer technologies such as Internet of Things, automation and cloud computing to push its digital revenue past the $5 billion mark this year.