Infosys to Buy U.K. SAP Services Firm

BANGALORE, India -- Infosys Technologies Ltd. last week agreed to acquire Axon Group PLC, an Egham, England-based services firm, for $747 million (U.S.)

The deal is expected to close in November.

Infosys CEO Kris Gopala Krishnan told reporters here that the acquisition will significantly expand the Bangalore-based outsourcer's SAP business.

The current Infosys SAP services business has about 2,100 employees servicing 100 clients.

"This will be a large acquisition for Infosys, and in the right market," said Siddharth Pai, an analyst at Technology Partners International Inc.

Infosys has expertise in SAP technology and software development, while Axon has experience deploying SAP technology in a variety of vertical industry markets, Pai added.

John Ribeiro, IDG News Service

Laptop Holding Personal Data Lost by Bank

EDINBURGH -- The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC last week disclosed that a laptop containing personal data on about 1 million customers was sold on eBay Inc.'s online auction site.

The laptop's hard drive contained customer names, addresses, telephone numbers, bank and credit card account numbers, and signatures.

The bank said it believed that an ex-employee is responsible for the $70 (U.S.) sale of the computer.

The U.K. Information Commissioner's Office is investigating the incident.

Carrie-Ann Skinner, PC Advisor (U.K.)

Briefly Noted

Personal data on about 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales was contained on a memory stick lost in transit by a contractor hired by the U.K. Home Office. London-based PA Consulting Group Ltd. transferred the unencrypted data onto a memory stick that was subsequently lost. PA Consulting has not commented on the data loss.

Mike Simons, Computerworld U.K.