Date:24/11/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/11/24/stories/2006112407661700.htm

Business

Microsoft joins TCS China

Staff Correspondent

Agreement signed at the summit

MUMBAI: Tata Consultancy Services and its Chinese partners, supported by the National Development and Reforms Commission (NDRC), announced on Thursday that Microsoft Corporation had signed a tripartite investment agreement to be a strategic investor in TCS China along. Microsoft will hold a minority 10 per cent stake in TCS China.

The agreement was signed at the Indo-China business forum, which was addressed by Chinese President Hu Jintao earlier. Microsoft's entry follows the granting of the business operating licence to TCS China and signals the culmination of the process to get the joint venture operational after an MoU was signed between TCS, Chinese parties and Microsoft in June 2005. Following Microsoft's entry, the shareholding of the joint venture will alter with TCS APAC owning the majority stake with 65 per cent and the three Chinese partners 25 per cent.

"The cooperation with Microsoft and the national software export base located in the new upcoming economic zone in Beijing and Tianjin, will help TCS China achieve great leaps in the future,'' Zhou Fang, CEO of Zhongguancun Software Park or Z-Park, one of the national software export bases in China and the representative of the Chinese parties, said.