Swiss Bank to Buy Stake in Perot Computer Firm : Mergers: The company founded by the Texas billionaire stands to double its revenue.

Swiss Bank Corp. will acquire a 24.9% stake in Perot Systems Corp. and turn over its global technology operation to the firm founded by billionaire Ross Perot, the companies said Wednesday.

The deal, which gives Perot Systems a $250-million-a-year contract and an undisclosed amount of cash, will catapult the Dallas-based company from a minor player in computer services--a field dominated by General Motors Co. subsidiary Electronic Data Systems, which Perot also founded--and double the its annual revenues to $600 million, officials estimated.

Seven hundred Swiss Bank technology staffers in Chicago, New York, London and several other cities in Europe and the Far East will become employees of a new division at Perot Systems that will target financial services companies. The deal, approved by both companies’ boards, is expected to close by year-end.

Perot Systems will run Swiss Bank’s global computer network and use the bank’s technology, including sophisticated trading and risk management systems that operate across several time zones, to offer services to other banks and financial firms. The services, known as outsourcing, can save money because companies do not have to employ technologists.

Perot Systems already does 40% of its business outside the United States, mainly in Europe, but the deal will give it a presence in Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong and an entree with clients of Swiss Bank, a leading global investment bank.

The company was not hurting for capital, said John King, president of the new division. Rather, it wanted to form an alliance with a global company and expand its presence in overseas markets.

“This will make us a much better competitor,” King said.

Perot Systems, founded in 1988, designs and runs computers for a variety of clients, including Europcar, a leading European car rental company, Barclays Bank and Tenent Health Care. But it is a fraction of the size of other outsourcers, such as EDS and IBM, which have billions in revenue.

Perot no longer works at the company, but a family trust owns 40%.

The arrangement with Swiss Bank is the first step toward taking the company public, King said. The company, with 2,500 employees worldwide, will look at selling shares to the public in 1997, company officials said. Swiss Bank’s stake could be worth $250 million, they said.

Perot Systems has targeted the banking industry in the past, with mixed results. Several years ago it inked a contract with NationsBank Corp., the nation’s third-largest bank company, to own and run its data centers. The bank eventually took back control of most of its technology operation.