Under the terms of the deal, Plano, Texas-based Perot paid $3m in cash to acquire Chennai, India-based Vision, with an additional $7m payable depending on the company achieving certain performance targets by 2006. Vision, which was formed in 1997, comprises two operations: Vision Healthcare India Private Lt and Vision Healthsource Inc, and employs some 500 staff in India, where it provides claims processing and call center services for about 25 US-based clients, covering over $1bn in healthcare claims.

Perot plans to pool the company into its own healthcare practice, a division it has been keen to grow in recent months. In May, the company opened a new service center in Kentucky to support clients in the healthcare sector. The center currently houses 125 employees, but the firm expects to hire an additional 250 over the next 18 months. It will provide services to hospitals including billing and recovery of insurance and patient recoverability dollars.

Some 4,000 of Perot Systems’ 10,000 employees work in its healthcare sector division, and the company currently has long-term relationships with four of the top 20 US health systems. Perot Systems is not the only IT services provider building up its presence in the healthcare sector, which is being tipped as a major growth area for IT services providers as healthcare firms invest in new IT systems to meet regulatory standards such as the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Chantilly, Virginia-based research company Input Inc believes that US state governments will spend $3bn on HIPAA IT services projects over the next three years.

The acquisition of Vision adds to Perot’s existing software and services operations out of India through HCL Perot, which it formed in 1996 as a joint venture company with HCL Technologies. The division made total revenue of $87.4m in full year 2002, and reported a net profit of $15.5m. The deal is also the second acquisition of the year by Perot, adding to its $107m purchase of Soza & Company in February, an IT consulting and services firm for the US government sector, another potentially high-growth vertical market.

Source: Computerwire