Soota, the 83-year previous IT trade veteran, who beforehand based Mindtree and is a former Wipro government, owns about 44% stake in Happiest Minds Technologies immediately and thru funding corporations. The promoter group stake was value about Rs 2,500 crore on Thursday.
“One of the big four firms is currently carrying out a commercial due diligence and a report will be provided to interested bidders within weeks,” stated one of many individuals, who didn’t want to be recognized.
Another individual stated, “The discussions are at a very early stage and it may take weeks for it to proceed to the next step. At that stage, depending on the negotiations over valuations, any deal may or may not happen.”
In February, Soota had stated at a post-earnings press convention – when requested about stake sale plans – that the corporate was centered on its synthetic intelligence mission and that he was “very much at the helm”. He didn’t reply to a number of queries despatched by ET until press time. Happiest Minds Technologies, too, didn’t reply.
EQT and Partners Group additionally didn’t reply to queries despatched on Tuesday.
On Friday, responding to a clarification sought by the inventory exchanges, Happiest Minds stated in a submitting, “…the company is not privy to any such discussion and therefore cannot comment on the same.”
An ITC Infotech spokesperson stated in an emailed response, “We do not comment on market speculation”. ITC Infotech is an entirely owned subsidiary of cigarette-to-hotel conglomerate ITC.
“Mid-market IT services firms could see consolidation given some of the headwinds being faced by the outsourcing industry. In this backdrop, one could see larger rivals trying to buy smaller or equally sized players… and PE (private equity) firms also exploring these such acquisitions,” stated an trade watcher, who didn’t want to be recognized.
In the previous one yr, Happiest Minds Technologies shares have fallen greater than 40%, closing 3.2% down on Thursday at Rs 371.60 apiece on the BSE. The firm had a market capitalisation of Rs 5,658 crore.
For the October-December 2025 quarter, the corporate reported a 10% year-on-year increase in its working income to Rs 587 crore, whereas its internet revenue fell 20% to Rs 40 crore. CEO Joseph Ananthraju stated the corporate aimed to double its synthetic intelligence (AI) workforce dimension subsequent yr from 500. It has set a income goal of $1 billion by 2030-31.
Following the fast adoption of AI instruments for software program improvement and automation, software program and IT providers corporations have seen sharp corrections of their valuations, making them more and more enticing targets for personal fairness buyouts. ET reported on March 2 that non-public fairness traders are accelerating control deals in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) segment, betting on an AI-led shakeout that’s compressing valuations and making a purchaser’s marketplace for worthwhile corporations.
Over the previous yr, a number of mid-to-late stage SaaS corporations have both seen majority stake acquisitions by personal fairness gamers or have moved towards inner consolidation to strengthen stability sheets and defend margins.
“There are several software deals in the market and private equity investors are actively evaluating them, but valuations are where incoming investors are pushing hard,” stated an funding banker acquainted with such transactions. “Right now, transactions are stalling where there isn’t enough clarity on how demand will evolve over the next 12-18 months… particularly with technology budgets shifting toward AI and away from people-led digital transformation projects.”
