PeopleSupport to Merge with Essar Services (Mauritius), a Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Aegis BPO

  
    
  
  
    
      Aegis BPO, a leading global business process outsourcing (BPO) provider 
      and part of Essar Group, one of India’s 
      largest and fastest growing business conglomerates with an estimated 
      enterprise value of over $50 billion, and PeopleSupport, Inc. 
      (Nasdaq:PSPT), a leading offshore BPO provider, today announced a 
      definitive agreement to merge through Essar Services (Mauritius), its 
      wholly owned subsidiary, through a cash transaction with an aggregate 
      equity value of approximately $250 million. This strategic combination 
      has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of both 
      companies.
    
    
      Under the terms of the agreement, Aegis BPO will pay PeopleSupport 
      stockholders $12.25 per share in cash through Essar Services 
      (Mauritius), which represents a premium of approximately 29% over 
      PeopleSupport’s closing share price on August 
      1, 2008, the last trading day prior to today’s 
      announcement, and a premium of approximately 42% over the average 
      trading price of the Company’s shares during 
      the previous 30 trading days.
    
    
      Following the merger, Aegis BPO will become a leader in the rapidly 
      growing global BPO market with operations in India, the Philippines, the 
      United States and Costa Rica. With approximately 4,000 employees in the 
      U.S. and more than 25,000 employees in several offshore locations, Aegis 
      BPO is well positioned to provide onshore, nearshore and offshore BPO 
      services or a combination of customized solutions to meet client 
      requirements. Additionally, Aegis BPO will offer and benefit from 
      greater scale, deeper domain expertise, a comprehensive and flexible 
      solution offering, financial strength, and a rich international talent 
      pool.
    
    
      Lance Rosenzweig, PeopleSupport CEO and Chairman, said, “PeopleSupport 
      has pioneered the development of offshore BPO in the Philippines and 
      Costa Rica, and we are excited to become a part of a global outsourcing 
      leader. We believe that this combination will deliver superior value to 
      PeopleSupport’s stockholders and customers as 
      well as provide our employees with an opportunity to be part of a larger 
      enterprise and to explore career opportunities in new geographies. 
      Combining PeopleSupport and Aegis BPO, with its excellent reputation for 
      customer service and high quality services, creates a wealth of exciting 
      growth opportunities, as well as operational and client acquisition 
      synergies. Our two companies share the same core values of customer 
      satisfaction and commitment to high quality solutions. PeopleSupport’s 
      solutions bring compelling value to an organization and Aegis’ 
      leadership and market strength can take PeopleSupport to the next level 
      of excellence.”
    
    
      “This is a truly outstanding combination,” 
      said Aparup Sengupta, Global CEO and Managing Director of Aegis BPO. “The 
      addition of PeopleSupport’s high performance 
      operations in the Philippines and Costa Rica will enable Aegis BPO to 
      become a leader in the global BPO market. We share many common values, 
      namely our dedication to customer excellence, thriving on innovation and 
      building a people culture. This combination extends Aegis’ 
      capabilities across multiple geographies and domains, which is one of 
      the key strategies of becoming a global outsourcing leader.”
    
    
      Credit Suisse is acting as financial advisor to PeopleSupport and 
      Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP is providing legal advice to 
      PeopleSupport. UBS and Edelweiss Capital are acting as financial advisor 
      to Aegis and Shearman Sterling is providing legal support to Aegis.
    
    
      The transaction is subject to several conditions including PeopleSupport 
      stockholder approval, regulatory approval and certain other customary 
      closing conditions, and is expected to close in the third or fourth 
      quarter of this year. The transaction is not subject to any financing 
      conditions.
    
    
      About Aegis
    
    
      Aegis BPO is today one of India’s fastest 
      growing BPO companies with annual revenues of over USD $320 million. It 
      is a part of the ESSAR Group which is one of India’s 
      largest conglomerates in terms of enterprise value. Aegis BPO services 
      some of the world’s largest corporations in 
      the Telecom, Banking, Insurance and Healthcare verticals through its 25 
      delivery facilities in the U.S. and India. Aegis BPO operates over 
      14,000 seats and employs over 20,000 people globally. It has been 
      recognized as being one of the largest offshore BPO companies in India 
      and among the top 2 in the Indian domestic sector. Visit website www.aegisbpo.com.
    
    
      About Essar
    
    
      The Essar Group is a globally diversified conglomerate with huge 
      business interests in Steel, Energy, Power, Communications, Shipping & 
      Logistics, and Construction. The Essar Group has an estimated enterprise 
      value of over USD $50 billion and employs over 38,000 people worldwide.
    
    
      With a firm foothold in India, Essar is focused on global expansion with 
      projects and investments in Canada, USA, Africa, the Middle East, the 
      Caribbean and Asia. Visit website www.essar.com.
    
    
      About PeopleSupport
    
    
      PeopleSupport, Inc. (Nasdaq:PSPT) is a leading offshore business process 
      outsourcing (BPO) provider that offers customer management, 
      transcription and captioning and additional BPO services for global 
      enterprise clients. From its world-class service delivery centers in the 
      Philippines and Costa Rica, PeopleSupport offers high performance 
      services with deep industry domain knowledge and expertise, resulting in 
      customizable and best practice solutions. By delivering high quality 
      services from offshore locations, PeopleSupport’s 
      service delivery centers reduce costs, improve performance and increase 
      revenues. A majority of PeopleSupport's services are performed in the 
      Philippines, where PeopleSupport is one of the largest outsourcing 
      companies, employing approximately 8,000 college-educated, fluent 
      English speaking personnel. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, 
      with approximately 8,500 employees worldwide, PeopleSupport serves 
      clients in a variety of industries, such as travel, consumer, financial 
      services, healthcare, insurance, technology, telecommunications, 
      entertainment and education. For more information, visit www.peoplesupport.com.