PUNE: Fremont-based Versant Corporation, a company specializing in data management and open data access software, is moving several new initiatives to its India operations at Pune. Versant's Pune center was established as a satellite R&D office in 1998.
According to Versant Corporation CEO Nick Ordon, the Pune center would be the largest data center for the entire company and would participate in building the company's flagship database product. Versant is in the process of appointing a GM for its Indian operations.
The company has also appointed a global consultant to coordinate worldwide offshoring across all facilities to leverage talent and opportunity delivered by the Pune facility.
Versant invested $600,000 during its last fiscal ending October 2003 in the India operations. Ordon estimated a growth of 10 percent in this figure during the current calendar year. Presently, about 25 persons are working at its Pune center, which is expected to be ramped up to 50 soon.
Versant made three key acquisitions in 2004. In July 2004, it acquired FastObjects Inc., the US and Canadian distributor for database management products.
In June 2004, the company acquired JDO Genie product line and its customers from JDO Genie, a privately held South African company. In March 2004, Versant merged with Poet Holdings, a public company listed on the Frankfurt stock exchange.
In addition to this, Versant launched two new products to deliver object persistence and object relational mapping for both Java and .NET communities. Most of the work in the new product line called Versant Open Access was done from Pune.