Monsoon Sale

Every newspaper carries advertisements on them, and every shop has a hoarding mentioning them. I'm not sure if that is still the case, but "Monsoon Sale" used to be the most favourite topic around last month. With some crazy discounts going on, most of my friends spent their time at shopping malls. The reduced activity in the past few days could be due to the re-entry of the rain Gods, or maybe the sale itself is over.

 

The monsoon sale in the shops might have stopped, but the sale of firms is moving hot nowadays. After acquiring 41% stake in i-Flex a month back, Oracle is now buying-out Siebel Systems. And then, there is eBay planning to buy Skype Technologies. Not just these, most companies are giving statements that they are looking for takeover targets and have acquisitions in the pipeline. Seems everyone is having lots of idle cash in hand.

 

With these expansions, mergers, acquisitions etc going on, every one should be happy, right? May be not. Some of the IT majors have made open their plans to down-size (that would be "right-size" for the HR fellas) in their costly locations. HP is performing global restructuring by laying-off 5900 from its man power strength (http://www.hindu.com/2005/09/13/stories/2005091315971400.htm). According to ET (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1227765.cms), Siemens might cut 10,000 jobs. On the other hand, MNCs are recruiting heavily in India. Effects of offshoring? May be. But I wouldn’t blame them as it is only in the nature of business to move towards better profitability. Considering the cost of operations in the west, man-power in India is available at “Monsoon Sale” ;)