Wipro forays into semiconductor business

IT major Wipro is entering the semiconductor territory, which is largely uncharted especially for a player from its sector.
Sudip Nandy, head of telecom and engineering business wants to carve out a new play for Wipro as a manufacturer.
From television to set top boxes, the company will have it all in its kitty.
It is executing a pilot set-top box project that has been prototyped in North America, part assembled in Netherlands and Japan, manufactured in Korea and being sold in Africa.
The project is a pilot of 200 - 500 set top boxes to start with before it can be scaled up and it has forged partnership with local Korean manufacturers for the same. The projects will be on revenue share model, which means Wipro makes more money if the product sales more and vice versa.
Wipro clearly has big ambitions in semiconductors space. It has now pulled out of its much touted Motorola Joint venture as well and wants to develop mobile equipments on its own.
Sudip Nandy however has a tough job up his sleeves, given the semiconductor space is dominated largely by player like Intel and back home there are 200 chip companies offering niche services. The big daddies like Reliance is also gearing up for this space and Nandy says it is the end to end capability of Wipro from software to products, that will give it the competitive edge.