India’s leading pure play BPO firm Genpact, is considering the possibility of acquiring Satyam’s business according to a report in the Economic Times. The company reportedly is discussing the matter internally for some time now.

If this move is formalized, it would be the first time a pure play BPO firm would consider the acqusition of a mainstream IT company.

Satyam’s size and the possibility of integrating a large IT firm with Genpact is the reson for hesitation. Pramod Bhasin said the company was in the quiet period and he would not be able to comment.

“Pure play BPO firms are coming under a bit of pressure from technology services providers. So, there is a case for BPO players to build more IT capability in areas like F&A (finance & accounting) and financial services and improving their application management and delivery. But it is probably more difficult for a BPO firm to build technical expertise. Plus, there are large firms such as IBM and Accenture, but certainly, if they do the right acquisition it is possible,” the paper quoted an analyst with research firm Datamonitor.

IT companies acquiring BPO firms has been seen in the past with bellwethers like Infosys acquiring the captive unit of Royal Philips Electronics and more recently, TCS acquiring Citigroup’s BPO in India. However BPO firms venturing into IT has not been heard of as yet.