GlobeOp BPO: Buy me for $150 Million
By Pulkit Sharma

US and UK head quartered GlobeOp Financial Services is a leading, independent financial technology company providing specialized financial advice as well as BPO services to its clients. It has 1200 employees in 3 continents and says it has $100 billion in assets under administration. GlobeOp sources tell Techgoss that it keen on selling off its Mumbai-based BPO.

GlobeOp Financial Services (LSE: GO.) managers heaved a sigh of relief when the company maintained its position in the annual FinTech100 rankings released on Nov 6.  It is no secret that at least half of GlobeOp clients had suffered badly in the recent global meltdown.  While GlobeOp is highly regarded, the global recession has been harsh to its clients.

According to highly placed sources in GlobeOp, even though it says it has about 1500 employees in press releases, the number is more like 1200. A number of hedge funds (which account for majority of GlobeOp's client base) shut down last year due to the American subprime crisis which logically had a negative effect on GlobeOp's balance sheet. The severity of the losses impact has led it to look for a potential buyer for its captive operations. The Holy Trinity of Indian technology - Infosys, Wipro and TCS - tinkered around the GlobeOp Holy Grail but had to back off due to steep valuations. The shocking price of 150 million USD quoted by GlobeOp has no buyers in the Indian market which leaves us wondering about the fate of its employee base across the next few months.

15 days before it was officially announced, Techgoss has predicted on Oct 1, that respected Indian tech company Cognizant would buy the UBS captive in India.  To put this into perspective, Cognizant paid around 75 million USD for the 2000 sweater UBS captive which includes a sizeable number of IT staff.

So GlobeOp’s valuation of 150 Million USD has left Infosys, Wipro and TCS scratching their heads.