IBM chief Palmisano holds talks with Karnataka chief minister

Bangalore: IBM chairman and the CEO Samuel J Palmisano met Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna. The meeting was behind closed doors but talks were positive, say government sources, indicating that some memorandums of understanding may be announced in future.

Palmisano, however, did not speak to the media and the company refused to make any comment. Government sources, nevertheless, say three requests had been made at the ''preliminary'' 15-minute meeting here.

Karnataka would like to see IBM expand its operations in the state and set up an integrated campus, consolidating the activities of its various offices here, including the new captive offshore processing centre in ITPL, where the company has acquired 80,000 sq ft of space.

Krishna says he wants IBM to set up a Linux development centre in Hubli, where the company could access a resource pool of 5,000 engineers and has also asked IBM to look at setting up operations in the proposed hardware park in Devanahalli.