Wipro signs 'multi-million-dollar' deal with Nokia; here’s how IT stock reacts

Shares of Wipro fell nearly 1% in opening trade on Thursday, extending losses for the third straight session, even after the IT major signed a "multi-million-dollar" deal with Nokia to transform its digital workplace services. As per the deal, Wipro will overhaul its employee service desk and provide real-time IT support to a global network of employees. The company, however, did not reveal the value of the deal.

Continuing its losing streak, shares of Wipro declined as much as 0.82% to hit a low of ₹458.50, while the market capitalisation dropped to ₹2.39 lakh crore. The share price of IT heavyweight opened marginally higher at ₹462.95, against the previous closing price of ₹462.95 on the BSE.

Wipro shares touched its 52-week high of ₹546.10 on February 19, 2024, and its 52-week low of ₹375 on October 26, 2023. The counter has given 18% returns in the last one year and nearly 20% in six months, while it declined nearly 4% in the calendar year 2024. The stock has lost nearly 5% in the past one month.

In a post-market exchange filing on Tuesday, Wipro said that it secured a contract from Nokia to build a bespoke AI-powered, cloud-based solution for the Finnish telecommunications major’s workforce, comprising around 86,700 users globally in 130 countries of operations. The solution aims to enhance the employee experience by providing highly available, modular, secure, and automated services, the release notes.

“Generative AI is fast becoming a critical component of Digital Workplace services,” says Vinay Firake, Sr. Vice President & Managing Director Nordics, Wipro.

“We are proud to work with Nokia on building an IT support solution that will improve the employee experience. Our technology cloud-based expertise, combined with our design-led approach, will provide Nokia employees a highly personalised support, allowing them to better leverage technology and deliver better value to their customers,” Firake adds.

Designit, a Wipro company specialising in user experience strategy and implementation, will conduct user research to ensure personalised assistance is offered to employees at the right time. “This project will result in the creation of an experience-driven, omni-channel, and always-on global service desk, which will provide employees with highly flexible and secure services to empower them to effectively navigate a hybrid work environment,” as per the release.

Marije van Donk, Vice President, Head of User Experience, Nokia, says that Nokia is increasing its efforts to elevate and secure user experiences with its IT services. “A key pillar is a modernised remote support concept that uses the latest technologies to provide seamless, secure, and efficient support, regardless of location, device, or network. Implementing this concept will empower our users to self-service their issues, give intelligent and contextual guidance, and connect users with experts.”

Recently, Wipro released its March quarter earnings which showed that its consolidated net profit declined 8% to ₹2,385 crore, as against ₹3,074 crore in the corresponding period last year, owing to the challenging macroeconomic environment. The company’s revenue from operations stood at ₹22,210 crore in Q4 FY24, down 4.2% as compared to ₹23,190.3 crore in the same period in FY23.

Wipro’s total order book stood at $3.6 billion in Q4 FY24 and for the full year it was $14.9 billion. The company won 18 “large deals” in Q4 against 14 in the previous quarter. In total contract value (TCV) terms, the large deal bookings for Q4 was $1.2 billion. For financial year 2024, the company recorded large deal bookings TCV of $4.6 billion, up 17.4% as compared to the previous fiscal.

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