Oct.10: Infosys Technologies has cut its forecast for full-year dollar revenues because of the global financial crisis, causing its shares to fall as much as 17 per cent though it beat expectations with a 30 per cent rise in quarterly profit.

The country’s No. 2 information technology services exporter, after TCS, said it would not increase its £407-million takeover offer for British consultancy Axon, after HCL Technologies trumped it with a £441-million bid.

Infosys said the offer price was fair and the decision was based on the current economic environment. Chief executive S. Gopalakrishnan said the company, which was sitting on a $1.9-billion cash pile, was still open to acquisitions.

Infosys has posted a 30 per cent jump in quarterly profit helped by the weaker rupee. It said its July-September consolidated net profit rose to Rs 1,432 crore ($291 million) from Rs 1,100 crore in the year-ago period, while its revenue was up 19 per cent to $1,216 million. Its guidance for the second quarter was at $1,215-1,225 million.

“We benefited from the depreciation of the rupee against the dollar during the quarter, which was partially offset by the sharp appreciation of the dollar against all other major currencies,” Infosys chief financial officer V. Balakrishnan said.

Gopalakrishnan said, “We have revised our dollar revenue guidance to reflect the current economic situation and the drastic depreciation of major global currencies against the dollar.”

According to the revised guidance, the full-year revenue is expected to be $4.72-4.81 billion compared with the previous guidance of $4.97-5.05 billion.Infosys become the second technology firm in the country to cross the one-lakh-employee mark after TCS.