IBM gets CCI nod for restructuring in India

IBM's plan is to spin off its global MIS business into a new public company globally.

ITDC INDIA EPRESS/ITDC NEWS The Competition Commission of India has given deemed approval to the restructuring of International Business Machines Corporation, better known as IBM. An official statement by the government on Tuesday morning announced that permission under green channel was given to Kyndryl Holdings as well as Grand Ocean Managed Infrastructure Services (Ocean India) to internally restructure the 109-year-old technology giant.

India operations of IBM are only second to that in its home country US. The company had announced last year the hiving off of its managed infrastructure services (MIS) unit of its global technology division into a new set-up. Experts believe the move is so as to help the company that invented personal computers to pivot from its focus from IT infrastructure services to the two lucrative high-margin growth areas of recent times - artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud services.

IBM's plan is to spin off its global MIS business into a new public company globally. This will be done by separating MIS business into two newly incorporated acquiring companies, Kyndryl Holdings and Ocean India. The MIS Business includes security, regulatory and risk management services and Identity management services offerings of the Security Services unit of IBM’s Cloud and Cognitive software segment, but excludes the public cloud platform division.

In India, the MIS Business is presently housed in Network Solutions Private Limited (NetSol) and IBM India, both wholly owned subsidiaries of IBM Corporation.

"Post the proposed transaction, the acquirers will house and operate the MIS Business of IBM," said the official govt press note.