Cognizant on the prowl in Europe
Nasdaq-listed IT major Cognizant Technology Solutions is scouting for further acquisitions, especially in Europe, to build domain expertise and expand customer base in the region.
By TNN |
BANGALORE: Nasdaq-listed IT major Cognizant Technology Solutions is scouting for further acquisitions, especially in Europe, to build domain expertise and expand customer base in the region.
“We are looking at acquiring companies, especially in Europe in the range of $50-100 million. While we are strong in the financial services and healthcare segments, we need to build our retail and manufacturing businesses. So the acquisition could be to scale our expertise in one of these areas,” Cognizant vice-chairman Lakshmi Narayanan told ET.
Mr Narayanan, however, declined to put any timeline to the acquisition or names. In the first quarter of fiscal 2007, the firm saw about 14% of its total revenue of $460.3 million coming from Europe.
The company, headquartered in the US but with a majority of its employees based in India, has made quite a few acquisitions in the past. The company’s largest so far, has been the buying of the assets of Chicago-based Fathom Solutions, for $35 million in 2005.
The other acquisitions include that of Massachusetts-based AimNet Solutions, a managed infrastructure and professional services firm in 2006 and of Ygyan Consulting, a Pune-based SAP services provider in 2004. The range of $50-100 million indicates that Cognizant is looking for potentially bigger acquisitions, just like its Indian peer Wipro.
Cognizant is also looking to build on its service lines introduced in the last two years. “The new service lines like remote infrastructure management, testing services, transformation through SOA, data warehousing, business intelligence etc have seen good growth. We are now looking to scale them up,” Mr Narayanan said.
“We are looking at acquiring companies, especially in Europe in the range of $50-100 million. While we are strong in the financial services and healthcare segments, we need to build our retail and manufacturing businesses. So the acquisition could be to scale our expertise in one of these areas,” Cognizant vice-chairman Lakshmi Narayanan told ET.
Mr Narayanan, however, declined to put any timeline to the acquisition or names. In the first quarter of fiscal 2007, the firm saw about 14% of its total revenue of $460.3 million coming from Europe.
The company, headquartered in the US but with a majority of its employees based in India, has made quite a few acquisitions in the past. The company’s largest so far, has been the buying of the assets of Chicago-based Fathom Solutions, for $35 million in 2005.
The other acquisitions include that of Massachusetts-based AimNet Solutions, a managed infrastructure and professional services firm in 2006 and of Ygyan Consulting, a Pune-based SAP services provider in 2004. The range of $50-100 million indicates that Cognizant is looking for potentially bigger acquisitions, just like its Indian peer Wipro.
Cognizant is also looking to build on its service lines introduced in the last two years. “The new service lines like remote infrastructure management, testing services, transformation through SOA, data warehousing, business intelligence etc have seen good growth. We are now looking to scale them up,” Mr Narayanan said.
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