The new joint venture partner of the UAE's largest domestic IT outsourcing business is in talks with the company about the future of the partnership. Injazat Data Systems was founded in 2005 as a joint venture between Mubadala Development, the Abu Dhabi Government's investment arm, and the US-based technology outsourcer EDS. Since EDS was acquired by HP, another US technology business, the future of one of the region's fastest growing IT businesses has been unclear.
But today, in Dubai, the managing director of HP's Middle East business confirmed the two companies were in talks on how to move the business forward. "We are in dialogue in terms of the charter of this exciting joint venture," said John Hoonhout. "They have built up a very successful business in an extremely short time and we're basically assessing how do we take this forward." Although HP's US$14 billion (Dh51.4bn) acquisition of EDS was announced in mid-May, it was only at the end of August that the transaction was finalised, freeing the company to begin talks with Injazat that were previously not possible. "These are now starting to gather some momentum," Mr Hoonhout said. "But I can't tell you what the conclusions are - it's a work in progress."
The two companies had a working relationship prior to the acquisition, with Injazat a significant customer of HP. "We look forward to much closer collaboration," Mr Hoonhout said. "We are already pursuing a number of opportunities together." Injazat declined to comment on the story, with a company spokesman only confirming that talks were ongoing. Since the completion of the EDS acquisition, HP has announced that it will fire 7.5 per cent of its global workforce, amounting to almost 25,000 jobs. More than half the cuts will be in the US, with more than 9,000 job losses in the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions.
Mr Hoonhout said the job cuts would not have a significant impact in the UAE, where both HP and Injazat are projecting strong growth in the coming year. Injazat has won more than Dh1.5bn in outsourcing business since it was founded three years ago, mainly from deals with Abu Dhabi Government entities. The company has plans to expand to other GCC markets such as Oman and Qatar, and launched a defence subsidiary at the beginning of the year, targeting lucrative military contracts.
tgara@thenational.ae