Microsoft will set up a Search Technology Centre designed to help its Live Search gain on search leaders Google and Yahoo!, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said at the end of last week, in the midst of a five-city European tour. The move follows Microsoft's $1.2bn cash acquisition of Norwegian enterprise search firm Fast Search & Transfer earlier this ... [full story]
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ew contenders are emerging to challenge the Bric (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries' dominance of the offshoring market. While India was the "undisputed leader" followed by China in the list of the top 30 offshoring destinations, as compiled by analysts Gartner, this year's list showed Mexico, Poland and Vietnam pushing their way up to take them on. ... [full story]
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The economic downturn is likely to see UK businesses look closer to home when outsourcing IT or business operations this year, the National Outsourcing Association (NOA) has revealed. According to the NOA's predictions of upcoming trends for this year, the weakening state of the pound will mean offshoring won't generate the level of cost savings it did previously. As ... [full story]
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Microsoft Corp sold 28 million units worldwide of its Xbox 360 video game console through the end of 2008, expanding the Xbox's lead over rival Sony Corp's PlayStation 3 console in worldwide unit sales, the company said on Monday. Xbox 360 product management director Aaron Greenberg said 2008 "was our biggest year ever in Xbox history" despite a sluggish ... [full story]
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Determining the country or countries that are best placed to host offshore IT operations is a daunting task for many organisations, according to Gartner, Inc. This year, Gartner has assessed the suitability of 72 countries as offshore locations, and has announced its ‘Top 30’*. The analysis showed that the dynamic nature of the market has seen a number of countries ... [full story]
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Top four IT companies made 58,000 campus offers for the financial year 2009-10, down by 2,000 from the current year. Recruitment for Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys has gone up by nearly 2,000 each, a large chunk of this has come from tier I and tier II colleges, while this has gone down for Satyam and Wipro. ... [full story]
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IT research firm Gartner Inc said that India and China continued to remain undisputed leaders for offshore services in 2008, but the dynamic nature of the market has seen countries such as Egypt, Morocco, Panama and Thailand emerge as credible alternatives. Gartner has assessed the suitability of 72 countries as offshore locations and has announced its ‘Top 30’ countries ... [full story]
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Hornbeck Offshore Services reported higher third quarter earnings this morning and indicated that it plans to hang on to a division it had considered selling or spinning off. In June, the Covington firm began a strategic review of its tug and tank barge unit. But because of changing conditions in the credit market, Hornbeck said in this morning's report ... [full story]
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Plans for an offshore oil port in the Gulf of Mexico off of Texas are rapidly moving forward after decades of literal pipedreams. Three companies have announced plans to jointly build a facility that will handle about 18% of the nation’s oil imports and help feed the appetite of expanding refineries along the Gulf Coast. The $1.8-billion project’s design ... [full story]
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Shares of offshore and oilfield services providers plunged on concerns that demand for rigs and service platforms would fall as lower oil prices curb oil exploration opportunities. Oil prices fell 5 per cent to $82 a barrel, a one-year low, as fears that market turmoil will send demand for fuel slumping outweighed news that OPEC will hold an emergency ... [full story]
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There are many reasons why establishing your business offshore is such an attractive proposition. Typically many incorporate their business offshore to reduce taxation, protect privacy and assets. As we enter a business environment which is so much more difficult to run a business and succeed with reasonable profits, many consider moving their existing business or assets offshore. Setting ... [full story]
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In the next five years, global business process outsourcing (BPO) by the financial services sector will be worth $145-165 billion for India-based services providers, says a study by Everest Research Institute. The study entitled ‘Global Sourcing in Banking, Capital Markets and Insurance’ further states that offshore BPO adoption in the insurance sector will grow 12-15 times in the same ... [full story]
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Plant-hire company Rand-Air is seeing an increase in the demand for its air and power service supplies from Cape Town's marine and offshore facilities, says Rand-Air GM Louwrens Erasmus. He comments that the company's equipment is being deployed in the refurbishment and maintenance shutdowns of offshore drilling rigs that are docking locally. Rand-Air sales consultant for Cape Town ... [full story]
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Mumbai-based Garware Offshore Service Limited plans to add five more offshore vessels to its existing fleet within the next 12 to 18 months. The five vessels involve a total cost of about $100 million. Garware Offshore engages in the chartering of anchor handling tugs and platform supply vessels on hire basis in India. Its vessels involve in the ... [full story]
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UBS is to stop providing offshore banking services to American citizens as the latest development of its continuing involvement in the US government's $20bn (£10bn) tax-avoidance investigation into the bank's former operations. The Swiss bank, which has already closed down its US offshore banking business, went a step further and said that it would no long allow bankers from ... [full story]
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Homegrown technology conglomerate IPVG announced recently that it has forged a deal with a Canadian company that will allow the two firms to offer call center services for companies based inside and outside of Canada. In a statement released last week, IPVG said it has signed a partnership agreement with Gemma Communications LP (GemmaCom), a call center company based ... [full story]
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UBS is to stop providing offshore banking services to American citizens as the latest development of its continuing involvement in the US government's $20bn (£10bn) tax-avoidance investigation into the bank's former operations. The Swiss bank, which has already closed down its US offshore banking business, went a step further and said that it would no long allow bankers from ... [full story]
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A worldwide banking coalition on Thursday proposed reforms in how the international industry does business, in response to the global credit crisis that arose from the 2007 meltdown in the US mortgage market. The Institute of International Finance (IIF), an association of 380 top banks and financial services companies, issued a report in Washington after nine-month study of 'best ... [full story]
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Indian offshore services BANGALORE: India has emerged as the most matured location for offshored IT and BPO services, though this dominance might be chipping away given the rising costs. Everest Research Institute in its report “Global Sourcing—Market Vista Q1 2008” said that the cost inflation in Indian cities is exceeding the 2007 levels and this has increased the risk of ... [full story]
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Newfield Exploration Company (NYSE: NFX) announced that the East Belumut/Chermingat fields in PM 323 recently commenced production and the Puteri field in PM 318 is expected to commence production later this week. The East Belumut/Chermingat and Puteri fields are located offshore Malaysia. In conjunction with the start-up of production from these fields, Newfield raised its 2008 production guidance for ... [full story]
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First American Global Offshore Services, a member of The First American Corporation (NYSE: FAF) family of companies and a leading provider of offshore business process outsourcing solutions, announced today that it has partnered with USFN -- America's Mortgage Banking Attorneys(R) to provide business process outsourcing solutions (LegalBPO) to the association's membership and respective clients. "We look forward to this ... [full story]
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Alistair Darling will signal another tax U-turn this week to prevent a threatened exodus from Britain of multinational companies. In a speech to the CBI tomorrow, the Chancellor will sound the retreat over moves to tax intellectual property held offshore. The proposal was contained in a Treasury discussion paper on reforms to the way in which earnings from foreign ... [full story]
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Eidesvik Offshore has entered into a long term charter agreement for a large subsea construction vessel with Veolia ES Special Services, a subsidiary of Veolia ES Industrial Services. The vessel is under contruction and scheduled for delivery in December 2008 from Ulstein Verft AS. The contract is for eight years with optional extensions. The vessel in questions is ... [full story]
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The current economic downturn in the United States should force businesses there to contract more work overseas to cut on costs, according to the top official here of software services firm Headstrong. Washington, D.C.-based Headstrong provides software services for customers in the financial services market. In the Philippines, the company employs about 600 people and plans to increase its ... [full story]
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Topaz Energy and Marine Ltd. (Topaz), a subsidiary of Renaissance Services SAOG Oman, has made a dramatic entry into the buoyant hydrocarbon market in Qatar. With the acquisition of the Doha Marine Services (DMS) fleet of 14 owned and managed vessels, Topaz has added 4 of its own vessels into Qatar to corner an impressive 18% of the Offshore Marine ... [full story]
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Soaring day rates for new generation OSVs helped Hornbeck Offshore Services, Inc. (NYSE: HOS) report results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2008 that included a 43.2% increase in revenues to $97.5 million compared to $68.1 million for the first quarter of 2007. Operating income was $37.0 million, or 37.9% of revenues, for the first quarter of 2008 ... [full story]
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The current U.S. economic slowdown might have another side effect. It could lead North American and European buyers of information technology services to use more labor in lower-cost countries such as India, according to Stamford-based Gartner Inc. Gartner predicts buyers of IT services will shift from cost containment to a greater focus on cost reduction and productivity gains ... [full story]
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Twenty per cent of New Zealand businesses generated some form of overseas income in the last financial year. For 44 per cent of businesses surveyed, their offshore income came from sales of finished goods, and over a third, 38 per cent, gained income from services, Statistics New Zealand said today. The department's business operations survey, run annually since ... [full story]
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Hyderabad-based Satyam Computer Services Ltd is planning to set up its first offshore development centre (ODC) in Gujarat at Gandhinagar. The global IT consulting and services provider has sought 25 acres from the state government. Likely to be commissioned within two years, the ODC would generate employment for over 3,000 professionals in the state over a period of five ... [full story]
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Superior Offshore International Inc., which has experienced a mass exodus of top-level executives amid serious liquidity issues, on Friday said it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in federal court. The Houston subsea construction and diving services company will continue to operate its business as "debtor in possession" under the jurisdiction of the court, according to a press ... [full story]
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Todd Hornbeck, chairman and CEO of Hornbeck Offshore Services, is bullish on the market outlook for vessels serving the offshore oil industry. "The dynamics in the market are even more compelling now than in 1997" when the company was founded, Hornbeck told a standing room only crowd of investors at the Burkenroad Reports Investment Conference this morning. Hornbeck ... [full story]
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Markets recovered Friday from an early slip and moved steadily to higher ground. But volume fell a tad from Thursday's pace, preliminary data show. The NYSE composite moved up 0.2%, the Nasdaq 0.3%. The S&P 500 eked out a 0.1% gain, while the Dow slipped a like amount. Fertilizer producers moved higher, led by Mosaic's (MOS) 10.55 jump ... [full story]
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