iGate�s Phaneesh Murthy elicits different reactions from different people. Journalists love him, not because of his much-talked-about past but because of what he is now. He was accessible to most in the media till about a month ago; he agrees quickly to interview requests, promptly replies to e-mails and likes to meet scribes in his office that overlooks a sprawling campus in Bangalore�s Whitefield. Very few in the Indian IT services industry can explain the going-ons in the way he does.

Murthy�s peers in the industry take him and his company seriously�quite a contrast to the firm he wants to acquire. Executives from top tier Indian IT services firms, or even some of the frontline mid-tier firms, consider Patni hardly any competition. Patni doles out low-value, high-volume IT services; it is much less aggressive in terms of sales than iGate and appears to lack much of the process maturity that Murthy has fire-walled his company with.