Aegis-AOL, April 01, 2008: Essar group company, Ageis BPO, acquired internet firms AOL’s call centre facility in Bangalore for an undisclosed amount. However, industry sources pegged it around $30 million (Rs 120 crore). Aegis will provide customer service and technical support to AOL customers, while the latter will transfer 1,000-plus of its employees to Aegis.

MindTree-Aztecsoft, May 02, 2008: Bangalore based MindTree Consulting acquired mid-tier outsourcing product development (OPD) and testing player, Aztecsoft, for around Rs 400 crore. Both are Bangalore-based firms. Aztecsoft had over 2,200 employees and caters to the North American, European, Indian and Australian markets from four delivery centres in India. Besides getting scale as MindTree becomes an around Rs 1,100-crore company, it also got a wider client base through the deal.

WNS-Aviva BPO, July 10, 2008: In the largest ever buyout of a foreign captive BPO in India, Warburg Pincus-controlled WNS Holdings acquired Aviva Global Services’ BPO in India and Sri Lanka, for $230 million. WNS also bagged Aviva’s committed $1 billion outsourced work over an eight-year period. The buyout was funded through a $200 million line of credit from ICICI Bank, while Warburg, which owns 51% stake in WNS, pumped in around $30 million as equity contribution. The buyout brought over 6,500 employees of Aviva BPO under the WNS fold.

HCL-Liberata Financial Services, July 17, 2008: HCL Technologies acquired announced the acquisition of UK-based BPO firm Liberata Financial Services (LFS) for $2 million. HCL will acquire four LFS delivery centres in the UK with 800 professionals as part of the acquisition and invest $24 million in the business over the next three years. The HCL-Liberata Financial Services deal highlights the push by vendors to focus deeply on verticals, particularly the insurance vertical stated a Datamonitor analyst. The move to become a "value-add" player is highlighted in the HCL-LFS deal.

Aegis-PeopleSupport, August 05, 2008: Continuing its spate of acquisitions, Aegis BPO, acquired Nasdaq-listed offshore BPO provider PeopleSupport, in an all cash deal of $250 million. This was by far the largest acquisition for Aegis. The acquisition gave Aegis a sizeable presence in Philippines (three centers), as well as presence in Costa Rica where PeopleSupport has one centre and also added 15 clients to Ageis’ portfolio. The deal also increased Aegis staff strength to 29,000 from 20,000. It was also expected that to add about $270 million revenues from US clients.

Nomura-Lehman BPO, October 03, 2008: Japan’s Nomura Holdings agreed to acquire Lehman Brothers Holding's Indian back-office operations which employs more than 2,000 employees, including its IT operations a month after Nomura brought Lehman Asia. This announcement laid to rest a lot of speculation about the future of the Lehman BPO after the financial debacle.

Xchanging-Cambridge, October 06, 2008: British BPO company Xchanging announced the acquisition of outsourcing and IT firm Cambridge Solutions for a sum of 83 million pounds in cash and shares. Xchanging said that the acquisition would give them a market presence and potential for further growth in the US and Australia, as well as "critical mass" in its Indian offshore operations. The open offer for 22.59 million shares is being made in line with the takeover regulations, which stipulates the acquirer make an open offer for an additional 20 percent stake when its holding in the target firm touches 15 percent.

TCS-Citi BPO, October 08, 2008: The speculation on the buyout of Citigroup’s captive BPO Citigroup Global Services Limited (CGSL), came to an end with TCS acquiring all of Citi's interest in CGSL for an all cash deal of $505 million. In addition to the sale, Citi signed an agreement for TCS to provide, through CGSL, process outsourcing services to Citi and its affiliates in an aggregate amount of US$2.5 billion over a period of 9.5 years. This acquisition made TCS the second-largest BPO player globally, after IBM Daksh. Citi also became the first global bank to have outsourced its entire banking processes, including core banking operations, to a third party.

Serco-Infovision, December 15, 2008: In another trend, UK-based Serco Group acquired domestic BPO major Infovision for more than Rs 200 crore thereby making its entry into the Indian market. Through this acquisition, Serco intends to establish its brand in India and position itself as a provider of services to the public, as this market develops. Serco will offer Infovision’s domestic and international service offerings to its international customer base in addition to developing new BPO services. Infovision, now Serco BPO, is planning to add 5,000 people in the next calendar year besides investing Rs 100 crore in technology, process improvements and consolidation.