Mistral sets up design centre in Hyderabad  

HYDERABAD, May 9: Mistral Software, providers of

embedded designs and development, launched its Hyderabad development centre on

Tuesday.






By opening the design facility here, its second one in the country, the
Bangalore-based company expects to expedite operations with its existing clients

in the city.






"One of the reasons of coming to Hyderabad is to serve our existing clients
in Hyderabad in a better way. We wish to have new clients here as there are new

product companies coming over here, said Anees Ahmed, president and CEO of

Mistral Software, while announcing the inauguration of the new centre.






The Hyderabad centre will house over 30 professionals who will work on embedded
software and hardware design. Mistral plans to increase its headcount in

Hyderabad to 100 in two years.






The company also intends to augment its overall strength to 450 in a year.





The CMMi Level 3 company has set a target to become a Level 5 firm by 2008.





As part of its expansion plans, Mistral is looking at inorganic growth route and
opening IPO issue. "This would increase our scalability. We are looking at

firms in the similar space. We are looking at either acquisition or acquiring

some specific space of a company," said Ahmed.






The company is in talks with Indian and European firms for acquisition.
"Hopefully we would be able to announce anything regarding acquisitions and

IPO in three months," added Ahmed.






The Hyderabad centre will be headed by the general manager, Anand Pandurangan.
"I'm looking forward to building a significant brand and presence of

Mistral in Hyderabad," said Pandurangan.