Wipro, a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company has signed a definitive agreement to divest Wipro's hosted data center services business to Ensono, a leading hybrid IT services provider for USD 405 million. Wipro will unlock value by transitioning eight data centers, and over 900 employees of its hosted data center services business to Ensono.

The acquisition significantly expands Ensono's geographic footprint and global service capabilities, taking the company one step closer to achieving its vision of helping clients harness the power of hybrid IT to transform their businesses on a global scale.

Wipro and Ensono have also signed a long-term partnership agreement to jointly address the hybrid IT requirements of Wipro's new and existing enterprise customers. As part of the agreement, Wipro will make a strategic investment of USD 55 million in Ensono's combined entity.

Wipro has been providing comprehensive IT management solutions for large and mid-size enterprises for over 25 years, and operates world-class data centers, globally. The company has expertise across multiple computing environments and platforms, including mainframes, iSeries, Unix, Windows and Linux servers, and offers an array of delivery models ranging from customized solutions delivered in Wipro's data centers to remote management and cloud computing.

Hosted Datacenter services business is one of the three businesses that became a part of Wipro when it acquired Infocrossing Inc in 2007. The other two businesses-Medicare & Medicaid services in the health insurance space and ERP implementation services-have been integrated with other Wipro businesses and are not part of this divestment.

''As we embrace our strategy of focusing on newer digital areas of spend, our strategic investment and partnership with Ensono will enable us to remain committed to meeting the hosted data center services requirements of our customers. This partnership will enhance the global data center footprint and expand the available talent pool which will give us economies of scale and allow us to offer end-to-end capabilities in the infrastructure space, better than ever before,'' said Kiran Desai, Senior Vice President, Global Infrastructure Services, Wipro.

Shares of the company gained Rs 5.65, or 1.93%, to trade at  Rs 299.00.  The total volume of shares traded  was  68,446 at the BSE (9.59 a.m., Thursday).