MUMBAI, Aug. 25 -- Tata Consultancy Services opened on Tuesday morning up almost a percent, which is roughly what a company's shares do the morning after it announces the biggest European acquisition it has made in years. By eleven o'clock the gain had gone. The stock was changing hands at Rs.2,284.90 on the National Stock Exchange at 11:49 IST, eighty paise above Monday's close, having travelled Rs.51.50 between its high and its low to arrive back almost exactly where it started.

What TCS announced on Monday evening was two things at once. It is buying MHP, the Ludwigsburg management and IT consultancy that Porsche AG has owned for three decades and that employs about 4,500 people worldwide. And it has signed a five-year partnership und...