Developing mobile phones Sasken from India and Botnia Hightech from Finland join forces.
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n 2006 Sasken, an Indian listed company, acquired Botnia High tech from Finland. The deal resulted in a unique company in the IT industry: Sasken’s product development services cover all fields related to mobile phones, from components to maintenance. “There were hardly any overlapping operations. The companies actually complemented one another. Sasken has traditionally been strong in networks, ICs and software, while Botnia Hightech was well versed in Symbian and hardware matters. We also complement each other geographically,” says Hannu Jyrkkä, CEO of Sasken Finland. Sasken now has four strong product development units around the world: in Finland, India, China and Mexico. Growing needs In the early 21st century Botnia Hightech grew accustomed to annual organic growth of nearly 100 per cent. Customers, however, wanted to see even steeper growth, as well as a global service network. The company believed that big international investments were too risky to be made on its own, so it set out to find a partner. Since Sasken was also looking for growth, the companies had no difficulties reaching an agreement. Soon after the merger, around twenty of Sasken’s employees from India spent one year in Finland, getting acquainted with local operations. “This will enable us to duplicate our know-how. The team that visited us will now be in charge of training others back in India,” explains Jyrkkä. Sasken’s offices in Finland are located in Kaustinen, Tampere, Oulu and Turku. The company has also stationed employees at customer premises in other cities. Recruitment of new employees is ongoing. Wide-ranging competence Sasken’s business consists mainly of product development of mobile phones, ICs, communication networks and other wireless electronic devices. Its customers are big international mobile phone companies, such as Nokia. “Mobile phone companies want as comprehensive a product portfolio as 74 coastline • 2008
Mats Sandström
Product development of Symbian-based mobile phones is part of Sasken’s core competence.
Sasken’s international staff. From the left: Bhanu Prakash, David Jabez, Ari Tastula, Hannu Jyrkkä and Swadnadip Ghosh. The box in the foreground is used for mobile phone testing.
possible, but do not have the resources to focus on all technologies and every phase of product development. Symbian and Linux-based phones are part of our core competence. Sasken also has its own multimedia software and application framework, from which we can extract a model suitable for different customers,” says Jyrkkä. c
Sasken Tel. +358 10 408 1111 Fax +358 6 861 2370 www.sasken.com Business sector: Communication technology R&D and support services Turnover: $109.7 million Employees: 3,500 (Finland 350) Major markets: Worldwide