Meet the M&A man

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><br />BANGALORE: A banker''s instincts, a poet''s imagination, an entrepreneur''s appetite for success and firm belief in Karma sets him apart from most. Jerry (Jaithirth) Rao, who served as a Citibanker for over two decades before he took the plunge into software entrepreneurship, has built his company, MphasiS, into a thriving software provider today, with 7,000 professionals and revenues approaching Rs 600 crore.<br /><br />MphasiS, which began its journey six years ago as a pure play e-solutions company based in California, has grown into what Rao calls a `full service and broad-spectrum company'' through a string of four mergers and acquisitions over the same number of years.The company picked up the Bangalore-based Kshema Technologies for $21 million last week. It acquired the Mumbai-based Onida Infotech just a couple of months ago. In February 2003, MphasiS created its footprint in China by acquiring the Shanghai-based Navion.<br /><br />The biggest and most challenging one was, however, the merger with BFL Software in 2000. At that time, BFL was not winning large projects and the investors in MphasiS who had also invested in BFL mooted the idea of a merger. The merger fell in place but then came the harrowing economic slowdown of 2002. Rao''s steady resolve and prudence helped the company to see through the difficult period.<br /><br />Since then there has been no looking back. MphasiS added newer capabilities through its acquisitions. Rao says the company would pursue the acquisition strategy to address the weak spots in its delivery portfolio. ``Today, we are more balanced than what we used to be three years ago. We are still looking at filling up a remaining few weak spots,'' he says.<br /><br />To Rao, Karma means `full-blooded'' experience: One has to go through the full-blooded experience of life and bear the fruits of one''s own action.<br /><br />Rao, a Bangalorean with great fondness for south Indian delicacies, spends half his time with clients in the US. He is also on the visiting faculty at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and teaches at Sujaya Foundation, an NGO run by his wife.<br /><br /><formid=367815></formid=367815></div> </div>