FreeMarkets to operate in India

FreeMarkets Inc., which last month laid off 50 people from its Pittsburgh headquarters, will open an online auction monitoring center in India employing more than 100 people, its new chief executive said Tuesday.

Speaking in India's capital of New Delhi, CEO David McCormick said the company will spend $4.2 million over the next two years to open the center. McCormick indicated the company could expand the center's function in the future to include software development, engineering services and customer relations.

FreeMarkets joins a growing list of companies establishing operations in India to take advantage of that country's abundance of cheap, talented computer programmers. Green Tree-based iGate Corp., co-founded by India natives Sunil Wadhwani and Ashok Trivedi, last month reorganized its business units by having its India-based Mascot unit acquire its Pittsburgh-based eJiva unit in order to increase the amount of work done there.

In November, Microsoft said it would invest $400 million in India, including $100 million into its software development center in Hyderabad, its only such facility outside the United States.

FreeMarkets' spokeswoman Karen Kovatch said the India center will come in addition to similar centers the company has in Singapore and Brussels to handle the company's growing overseas business.

She said the new center will not have an impact on local employment, which stands at about 650 after last month's layoffs.

In other FreeMarkets-related news, Chairman Glenn Meakem bought 32,859 shares of his company's common stock on Jan. 31 at prices ranging from $4.11 to $4.20. The purchase brings his holdings to 1.516 million shares.