Appirio's TopCoder too is a big catch for Wipro

BENGALURU: Wipro has signed an agreement to acquire US-based cloud consultancy firm Appirio for $500 million (Rs 3,350 crore), confirming the report The Times of India published on Thursday . Appirio will be Wipro's second-largest acquisition. In 2007, it had bought US-based Infocrossing for $600 million.In a blog post, Appirio CEO Chris Barbin threw a challenge at Accenture and Deloitte that have made rapid strides in the cloud market over the past five years.“Watch out Accenture and Deloitte ­ we're coming,“ Barbin wrote.Barbin wrote that Appirio had found great alignment in Wipro's willingness to “reverse integrate their existing cloud applications services business under Appirio, their stellar list of more than 300 strategic accounts, and their recent investments in digital and AI (Holmes)“.
Appirio gives Wipro a major foothold in cloud transformation practices and a host of marquee clients including Facebook, Home Depot, Sony PlayStation, Coca-Cola and eBay . Wipro also gets TopCoder, a marketplace for tech professionals that Appirio had acquired.TopCoder provides access to an on-demand community of over 1million designers, developers and algorithmists.
“It is like the Tatas acquiring JLR. The services angle (Appirio's implementation of SalesforceWorkday cloud solutions) pales in comparison to the significance of getting TopCoder. More so because many of TopCoder users may be Wipro's competition,“ said a technology analyst who did not want to be named.
He said there could be a negative backlash on social negative backlash on social media from tech guys. “I can relate to them very easily, being one in the past. They will feel highly cheated with it (TopCoder) being transferred to an IT services organization and that too Indian. Hopefully Wipro will do wonders with it as Tatas did with JLR. TopCoder acquisition has high symbolic value,“ he said.