Bharti Airtel, IBM strike technology operations deal in Africa
Bangalore: US-based International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) has entered into an agreement to manage telecommunications-services provider Bharti Airtel Ltd.'s technology operations in 16 African countries, the companies said Friday. According to the Wall Street Journal, under the proposed
10-year contract—estimated to be worth more than a billion dollars by an analyst,
IBM will consolidate Bharti Airtel's information-technology operations in the
16 African countries into one integrated system. IBM will also oversee the management
of all of the technology applications, data-center operations, servers, storage
and desktop services, the companies said in a joint statement. The contract is
to be finalized in the fourth quarter, they said, without providing any financial
details.
