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Less than two years after its first acquisition in India, Nasdaq-listed Autodesk Software is learnt to be in advanced stages of talks with another software product startup for a likely acquisition that may be announced in the first half of 2015. In 2012, Autodesk had acquired social collaboration software Qontext from India-based Pramati Technologies for an undisclosed amount.
Even as he confirms the development, Ken Foo, the corporate development director for emerging markets at Nasdaq-listed Autodesk Software, says he doesn't want to "jinx" the deal by talking about it.
"There is no shortage of talent in India, and we know this for many years. We need to invest here more, not only for the Indian market but also for the global market," Foo said. "(We will close another acquisition in India) hopefully soon. I don't want talk about it and jinx it. I can't say by when we will close it but December is a slow period in the US, so we will definitely close it in early 2015."
While Foo refused to share any details into the acquisition target, he said, "it is a totally Indian product".
Foo, who was recently in India to attend Nasscom Product Conclave, has been making frequent visits to India since April this year. Among other things, his motive to visit India is to meet and screen software product startups that Autodesk could acquire or partner with. With Autodesk having established its interest in the Indian software startup ecosystem through one acquisition, Foo has been swamped by entrepreneurs during each of his visits. He meets teams of at least 10 startups on each day of his three-to-four day stay in the country.
While he could appoint a subordinate to manage his job in India, Foo says he is excited about the Indian startup ecosystem and keeping in mind Autodesk's seriousness about investing here, he wants to personally curate and pick companies for investments and partnerships.
Despite being based out of China, which also has a strong software product ecosystem, Foo says India has several benefits that make it outshine his home country. Among other things, he says that ease of language and government policies attract mergers and acquisition heads such as himself towards India, as against China.
"India is a very interesting place in terms of business. In China, because of the language and the government policies, it is very hard for companies like Google, YoutTube and Facebook, etc to do business; so you end up having a bunch of copycats," Foo said. "In India, you don't have that issue. There is not much of protectionism and you don't have a language issue."
Acquisition of Indian software product start-ups by Facebook, Google and Yahoo! over recent months have enthused several global technology majors to scout Indian startup ecosystem. Several sources had earlier confirmed that Walmart, Target, Microsoft, Thomson Reuters and Goldman Sachs are among those looking for suitable matches here.
Retail giants are looking at Indian start-ups in the big data and analytics space and several start-ups with machine learning and financial tools are being evaluated by others.
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