Alcatel-Lucent to hive off R&D unit to Infosys

World’s largest marker of fixed-line networks Alcatel-Lucent is planning to hive off one of its R&D units to IT major Infosys by the end of August this year, sources told Deccan Chronicle. On July 6, employees working with the ‘Mature R&D’ division in Chennai were informed of the divestment. Currently, there are close to 591 employees in the Mature R&D division that works in the area of testing; about 175 are based out of India. The rest of the employees are in France (59), Germany (72), Romania (101), Morocco (22), Egypt (10), and China (152).
Employees were informed they will be working with Infosys for a period of 18 months after which the Bengaluru-headquartered IT firm can decide on further retention.
In Chennai, the R&D team will initially work from Alcatel-Lucent’s office in Guindy; they will be shifted to Infosys premises by the end of 2010.
Alcatel-Lucent has been considering both outsourcing and divestment of many non-core areas. An e-mail employees received on June 18 specifically talks of outsourcing opportunities the firm was considering for its R&D division: “Negotiations are on going with three potential partners: HCL, Infosys and Wipro. The outsourcing project currently concerns E10/MGC 10 and S12/MGC 12 (the R&D division). Areas not involved are: the regional front office, product management, the technical interface teams, purchasing and supply chains.”
The email was sent by the Paris-based company to its employees after a European committee meeting.
When contacted, Alcatel-Lucent clarified: “As announced in December 2008, Alcatel-Lucent is engaged in a strategic transformation that includes looking at co-sourcing opportunities, partnering in some areas, divesting non-strategic activities, strongly investing in next generation technologies. We’ve already announced our project to partner with HP.
We are negotiating with other partners on other opportunities and will communicate on those ones in due time.” The company didn’t divulge any further details. An Infosys spokesperson said the company did not want to “comment on speculations”.

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