IBM awarded five-year contract by BP

Neither IBM nor the Indian firms, Tata Consultancy Services , Infosys Technologies and Wipro , disclosed financial details of the contract.

IBM said in a statement its share of the contract was the largest among multiple IT services deals awarded by BP as part of a drive to consolidate the number of services providers.

A spokesman for IBM in India declined to give further details.

As part of the deal, the U.S.-based technology major said it would manage and run BP's enterprise applications and integrated service desk responsibilities.

Indian outsourcers such as Infosys and Wipro, which compete with bigger rivals such as IBM and Accenture for large global deals, are increasing their focus on Europe and elsewhere due to a recession in the United States, their biggest market.

(Additional reporting by Janaki Krishnan in MUMBAI)

(Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by John Mair)