ManpowerGroup Announces Acquisition of 74 Percent Equity Stake in Web Development Company Limited to Provide IT Services and IT Professional Resourcing in India

KOLKATA, India, April 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- ManpowerGroup (NYSE: MAN), the world leader in innovative workforce solutions, announced today that it has successfully completed its acquisition of a 74 percent stake in Kolkata-based Web Development Company Limited (WDC), a leading IT services and professional resourcing company. Offering consulting, development and application support services to large clients across the Asia Pacific region, WDC has five delivery locations covering important IT hubs in India. With this acquisition, WDC becomes part of ManpowerGroup and will be managed by a reconstituted board.

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"ManpowerGroup is the world's largest IT professional resourcing company and this acquisition further strengthens the company's capabilities specifically in India, as well as across the Asia Pacific region," said Darryl Green, Executive Vice President for ManpowerGroup and President of the company's Asia Pacific and Middle East operations. "ManpowerGroup leads in the creation and delivery of innovative workforce solutions that help our clients win in this changing world of work. This acquisition is consistent with our strategy of acquiring strategic capabilities that strengthen our ability to deliver such innovative workforce solutions to our clients not only in emerging markets like India, but also globally."

Rahul Sharma and Harsh Hada, Executive Directors and Promoters of WDC said:  "We are delighted to be associated with a global organization such as ManpowerGroup. Over the years, we have grown our IT staffing and IT services business into a scalable and highly profitable organization focused mainly on India and recently on other markets such as Australia and Singapore. Backed by ManpowerGroup's global capabilities, reach and experience spanning more than 60 years in the industry, we are confident of further expanding our capabilities, geographical reach and client base in India and global markets, to build a truly global technology staffing and services business."

"WDC today is a well-established and fast growing brand in the IT professional resourcing business in India. We will combine the capabilities of Manpower Professional and WDC to consolidate our leadership position and transition to ManpowerGroup's recently announced Experis brand with specialized IT vertical, while providing attractive career opportunities for the young and growing population of IT professionals in India," said Sanjay Pandit, Managing Director of ManpowerGroup India.

About ManpowerGroup

ManpowerGroup™ (NYSE: MAN), the world leader in innovative workforce solutions, creates and delivers high-impact solutions that enable our clients to achieve their business goals and enhance their competitiveness. With over 60 years of experience, our $19 billion company creates unique time to value through a comprehensive suite of innovative solutions that help clients win in the Human Age. These solutions cover an entire range of talent-driven needs from recruitment and assessment, training and development, and career management, to outsourcing and workforce consulting. ManpowerGroup maintains the world's largest and industry-leading network of nearly 3,900 offices in over 80 countries and territories, generating a dynamic mix of an unmatched global footprint with valuable insight and local expertise to meet the needs of its 400,000 clients per year, across all industry sectors, small and medium-sized enterprises, local, multinational and global companies. By connecting our deep understanding of human potential to the ambitions of clients, ManpowerGroup helps the organizations and individuals we serve achieve more than they imagined — because their success leads to our success. And by creating these powerful connections, we create power that drives organizations forward, accelerates personal success and builds more sustainable communities. We help power the world of work. The ManpowerGroup suite of solutions is offered through ManpowerGroup™ Solutions, Manpower®, Experis™ and Right Management®. Learn more about how the ManpowerGroup can help you win in the Human Age at www.manpowergroup.com.

Enter the Human Age at: www.manpowergroup.com/humanage.

About Manpower India

Established in 1999, Manpower Services India Pvt. Ltd. is a subsidiary of Manpower Inc. With operations in 17 offices across 13 cities, Manpower India is one of the largest permanent recruitment and staffing firms in India. Manpower provides the complete range of HR services and solutions to clients, including permanent recruitment; temporary and contract staffing; managed services and outsourcing; employee assessment services; and training. Manpower's unique proposition lies in the knowledge and expertise of caring for candidates through assessment, career guidance and training; and creating higher value for clients through unmatched delivery capability, flexibility of solutions and access to global best practices in people management. As part of its 'candidate care and development' culture, Manpower provides free access to online training to all candidates and staff through the Training and Development Centre. Manpower India is building a strong reputation as an innovator and thought leader in the Indian HR industry.  Each quarter, Manpower publishes the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey that forecasts employers' hiring intentions for the next quarter, which has become the most authoritative survey of the Indian labour market. Manpower, as a socially responsible organization, has committed USD 1 Million towards building and operating vocational training centres for the purpose of rehabilitating victims of the tsunami in Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu. More information on Manpower India is available at www.manpower.co.in

About WDC

Founded in 1998, WDC has grown rapidly over the years to become an IT services and staffing company offering consulting, development, application support and staffing services. The company works closely with leading bluechip companies to augment, manage and develop custom solutions for their technology needs.

WDC embraces a delivery model that 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 offshoring through our own or the customer's delivery centers here in India. The company's experienced development team of over 1,200 highly-skilled IT professionals work with their clients onsite or offsite.

The team's development skill sets range from Microsoft Technologies, J2EE, SAP ERP Solutions, IBM technology stack solutions, CRM systems, content management, databases, application servers and rich media, with qualified professional experience across industry verticals such as manufacturing, retailing, government, telecom, property, infrastructure, finance & banking, medical & healthcare.

The company's quality certifications include ISO 9001:2008 which require the company to have a continuous focus on the effective application of quality, including processes for continual improvement and the assurance of conformity to customer and regulatory requirements. The company is now in the process of achieving CMMI level 3 certification. Operating from Kolkata, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune and Singapore, the company is well recognized for its excellence in execution throughout the value chain of consulting, project management, recruitment and staffing. More information on WDC is available at www.wdc.in.

SOURCE ManpowerGroup