Zendesk to be bought out for $10.2 bln; IT services staff in no hurry to WFO; Intel expands India design centre

Zendesk has agreed to be acquired by a group of buyout firms for $10.2 billion, bringing back a deal that will be one of the biggest private-equity takeovers of the year, Wall Street Journal reports. IT services employees are in no hurry to get back to the office, according to a survey by CIEL HR, Economic Times reports. And Intel has expanded its design and engineering capacity in Bengaluru by 2000 seats. Notes: Zendesk has agreed to be acquired by a group of buyout firms for $10.2 billion, bringing back a deal that will be one of the biggest private-equity takeovers of the year, Wall Street Journal reports. The deal, with a group led by Hellman & Friedman and Permira, values the software company at $77.50 a share, Zendesk said Friday, according to the Journal. While that is a roughly 34 percent premium to the closing price on Thursday, it is down sharply from a roughly $17 billion bid from a similar group of buyout firms the company rejected in February. Three in four employees working in IT services companies in India are not coming to office even once a week despite their organisations resuming work from office, according to a survey conducted by CIEL HR, Economic Times reports. Many IT services companies are also going easy on their return-to-office policies as they fear coercion may trigger more resignations. CIEL surveyed 40 IT companies in India, including those among the top 10, employing a total of about 900,000 employees, according to ET. Fintech startups in India have written to Reserve Bank, the country’s central bank, asking it to treat their prepaid payment instruments on par with bank accounts for customers who have undertaken certain verifications, TechCrunch reports. Reserve Bank last week signalled an industry-wide crackdown, saying that pre-paid instruments from non-bank companies couldn’t be used to sell loans. Intel India last week announced the expansion of its design and engineering footprint with a new state-of-the-art facility in Bengaluru, adding 4.53 lakh sq. ft of space in two buildings which can accommodate 2,000 employees in total. The expansion will help the semiconductor chip giant advance cutting-edge design and engineering work in client, data centre, IoT, graphics, artificial intelligence, and automotive segments, according to its press release. Riot Games will begin background evaluation of recorded in-game voice communications on July 13 in North America, in English, PC Gamer reports. Riot said in a brief statement that the purpose of the recording is ultimately to "collect clear evidence that could verify any violations of behavioural policies,” according to PC Gamer. For now, however, recordings will be used to first develop the evaluation system that may eventually be implemented. Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds: https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds