Hewlett-Packard Co has joined forces with Intria Corp to form a jointly owned IT services company in Canada, with revenues expected to exceed $980m (US) in the North American market over the next four years. It will be headed by Dan Branda, formerly chairman, president and CEO of HP’s Canada operation. Intria, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, was formed at the end of 1996 to help its parent and outside customers build the infrastructure needed for next generation electronic and PC banking. The new joint venture, to be called Intria-HP, will be based in Toronto, and will begin operations with over 750 staff from Intria, with further jobs expected to be created. Target customers will be in the financial processing and electronic commerce markets. Intria’s current computing facility handles over 4.2 billion online transactions annually, including 541 million point of sale transactions and 344 million from ATM machines. HP will gain access to Intria’s expertise supporting IBM Corp MVS and AS/400 systems and Tandem Computers Inc hardware, while contributing Unix and NT-based client/server outsourcing, support and systems integration services, IP networking architecture and security, and systems and networking management tools. If regulatory approval is given, the deal should be cleared by October.
