Manpower completes buyout of Kolkata's Web Development Company

Human resources consulting and recruitment major ManpowerGroup has completed the acquisition of Kolkata-based Web Development Company Ltd (WDC), a firm engaged in IT staffing business and software development. ManpowerGroup acquired the 26 per cent stake it did not own for an undisclosed amount.

Last April, the company acquired 74 per cent stake in WDC. But at that time, WDC founders Rahul Sharma and Harsh Hada had retained the remaining 26 per cent stake. With this acquisition, WDC becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of ManpowerGroup's Experis brand. Experis deals in professional resourcing and project-based workforce solutions. It is the talent acquisition arm and operates in sectors like IT, finance & accounting, engineering and healthcare.

Manpower is the world's largest IT staffing company and the acquisition will strengthen the group's capabilities in India and the Asia-Pacific region.

Set up in 1998, WDC is a Kolkata-based IT services and professional resourcing company that offers consulting, development and application support services to several large clients in India and across the Asia-Pacific region.

It provides clients with onsite business and technology consulting services for scoping, planning, project management and quality assurance of software projects, with core programming and development work offshored through the company's own or customers' delivery centers in India. The company has a development team of over 1,400 IT professionals working with the clients, onsite or offsite, and building out custom technology solutions.

Manpower Inc had earlier acquired three divisions of Indian HR consulting and recruitment firm ABC Consultants to form a local joint venture Manpower India in 2005 and later went on to buy the local partners to make it a wholly owned Indian arm.

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)