Bangalore: Information Technology (IT) major Infosys Technologies is the second most profitable software firm in the world after Microsoft, Infosys chairman and chief mentor N R Narayan Murthy said on August 7.

Asserting that Infosys was close to becoming a $ one billion company, he said that it had given a guidance of $ 965 million to $ 982 million and profits of $ 235 to $ 245 million during the current fiscal.

"In that sense, we are the second most profitable company in the entire world in software after Microsoft," Murthy said at the global technology conference on "Leading the World: Building a Technology Tiger" organised by the Stanford Asia Technology Initiative (ATI) at the Infosys company as part of the first Stanford alumni meet in India.

Nearly 100 Stanford alumni, faculty and students are attending the conference by ATI, a student initiative to be a bridge between Stanford and Asia.

Charting out the progress of the NASDAQ-listed major, he said, Infosys grew from being a $ 3.9 million 200 people firm in 1991-92 to $ 753 million with profits of $ 195 million in 2002-03.

Murthy said the real value for the company was its people, who were best in class, adding that the capitalisation in the stock market was "zero" after the trading hours in the stock market ended on the day.

"The market capitalisation may be about $ seven billion and it is from 9.15 am to 6.55 pm… After the end of the day that valuation becomes zero and the real value is in the people," Murthy said.

Infosys, he said, selected the best 5,509 people last fiscal from about 6.14 lakh application and the attrition rate of the company was at 6.9 per cent, half of the industry average.

Murthy said the company believed in (C-LIFE), which is Customer Focus, Leadership by example, Integrity and Transparency and Excellence in perfection.

PTI