The acquisition, completed in the first week of January 2001 is in line with Convergent's strategy to enter the high-end networking/communication products segment. The focus of the new line of business is expected to be on the growing domestic market segments -- especially the ISP space. Convergent was formed two years ago by former Motorola employees following their takeover of Motorola's India Networking Operations. Incidentally, Citrix recently acquired the Bangalore-based Powertel and has hived off the business as part of its market focus and consolidation plan. Speaking to The Financial Express Convergent's managing director and CEO Venkat Kedlaya said this acquisition was synergistic with the company's plans to foray into the growing ISP market, build up its portfolio of networking products and acquire the market channels that Powertel had built up. While the acquisition involved the transfer of technology, customers and channels, Convergent has not taken on any employees from Powertel. A major ramp upon the manpower front from the current base of 80 employees is currently underway.

Besides the recently acquired Powertel range, Convergent's product offering currently includes networking products from Motorola (routers/leased line modems), digital modems and digital RAS (remote access servers) from Patton Electornics, modems and high end SOHO (small office/home office) products from US-based Zoom. The company also has licences for some private lable products from the Far-East -- FastSurfer (consumer Internet modem) and SoftSurfer (internal modem based on Motorola chipset). ``With the acquisition of Powertel, we expect to integrate the division closely with our existing business. While the company will retain the Powertel brand names for certain products (where the brand recall is significant) there is likely to be some brand rationalisation with other products,'' Mr Kedlaya said. The key focus would be on the domestic market, he added. While Powertel, prior to being acquired by Citrix had notched up revenues of Rs 13 crore, Convergent expects the Powertel business to add on only anotherRs 3-4 crore to its topline projection of Rs 20 crore this fiscal. ``The market prices for networking/modems and access products has been declining and therefore we cannot expect to see a direct addition of revenues taking place. The key benefit that we are looking for is the access to Powertel's customer base and channel network/expertise, Mr Kedlaya said.