Feb 20, 2019

Acqui-hire is a portmanteau of "acquisition" and "hiring". This is Intel's first major talent acquisition in India. E Kumar Sharma         Last Updated: February 20, 2019  | 13:18 IST US-headquartered technology giant Intel Corporation has acqui-hired Hyderabad-based Ineda Systems' 100 engineers, in what seems to be a swift move, sealed between the two companies a week ago--on February 12. Acqui-hire is a portmanteau of "acquisition" and "hiring". This is being seen as a validation of Ineda's talent capabilities and establishes the fact that it has come a long way from where it began seven years ago. Dasaradha R Gude, the founder of Ineda, told Business Today that since it was an acqui-hire deal, the global giant was acquiring Ineda's 100 engineers and one of their office facilities in Hyderabad. This apparently is to help Intel expand and grow faster. Ineda, however he clarifies, will retain its IP and its products; including microchips, medical devices and smart meters. Ineda, he claims, is today a $100 million or about Rs 700 crore company, with 1400 people that it will retain after sharing 100 with Intel. This is Intel's first major talent acquisition in India. Talking about the talent that is being hired by Intel, he says, "This is a good talent with great capabilities including the ability to design low power chips that consume less power.'' Ineda, he says, will also be giving away one of its office facilities housed in one of the seven buildings the company occupies today. He added that though Ineda took off with a focus on making chips for wearable devices, today it is heavily into IoT, artificial intelligence and related areas and is now gearing to launch some of its products. Gude, or GD as he is known to many of his colleagues and business associates, began with the belief in the power of wearable chips. Ineda, which is derived from 'integrated electronics designs for advanced systems', designs chips for use in wearable devices. From 2007 to 2010, Gude was corporate vice president at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Inc and later managing director at AMD India. He founded Ineda in 2011, and members of his team have previously worked in global companies such as AMD and Intel. Many of the 100, who will now join Intel, have been with him since the company's inception. Back then, he used to describe his team members as "people with courage to leave big companies and step out to do something innovative." In fact, Gude, who had spent a large part of his career in the world of processors, before venturing out with Ineda, had told Business Today, "we are processors".