tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37604180.post-1163587046664813382006-11-02T02:31:00.000-08:002006-11-15T02:39:14.386-08:00<strong>IBM, EDS Win 7-Year Outsourcing Contract From Vodafone<br /></strong><br />Wireless phone service provider Vodafone Group PLC said Thursday it reached a seven-year outsourcing agreement with Electronic Data Systems Corp. and International Business Machines Corp.<br /><br />Under the terms of the agreement, EDS will manage application development and maintenance services for Vodafone in Germany, the U.K., Hungary and the Netherlands, while IBM will provide outsourcing services in Spain, the Czech Republic, Australia, New Zealand, Portugal, Ireland, and Greece. Subject to board approval, Italy may be served by IBM.<br /><br />Vodafone retains the right to pull out of the contracts before they expire.<br /><br />Vodafone estimates that it spent roughly 560 million British pounds ($1.07 billion) on application development and maintenance services in its last financial year.<br /><br />Although the financial terms of the contracts weren't disclosed, Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT Research in Hayward, Calif., estimates the deal could be worth as much as $2 billion for IBM, and perhaps a little less for EDS.<br /><br />Shares of IBM were down 44 cents at $91.36 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, while EDS shares were up 3 cents at $25.68. Vodafone shares were up 5 cents at $25.83.<br /><div align="right"><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>Thanks to</strong>: <a href="http://www.ap.org" rel="nofollow">www.ap.org</a></span> </div>Dassnagar Infosystems, Indianoreply@blogger.com