Cognizant to acquire New Signature

Cognizant has entered into an agreement to acquire New Signature, one of the world’s largest independent Microsoft Public cloud transformation specialists. The transaction is expected to close in Q3 2020.

 

The acquisition of New Signature expands Cognizant's hyper-scale cloud advisory services and will provide the foundation for a new, dedicated group within Cognizant centered on Microsoft cloud solutions. New Signature, an award-winning Microsoft Partner, is exclusively focused on Microsoft technologies, with an integrated offering across all three of Microsoft's business clouds: Azure, Microsoft 365, and Dynamics 365. Upon the close of the acquisition, New Signature's more than 500 cloud experts, based primarily in the U.S., U.K., and Canada, will join Cognizant's newly-formed Microsoft Business Group.

New Signature's success is built upon helping clients create and accelerate their business transformation through the adoption of Microsoft cloud technologies. In joining Cognizant, they will have access to Cognizant's deep industry expertise and global scale, and together, provide best-in-class cloud solutions for the intelligent workplace, applied innovation, and managed services.

 

New Signature's global client portfolio includes businesses across a broad range of industries, as well as government and non-profit institutions. Engagements have included a cloud migration for Virgin Atlantic Airways, an IoT solution for The Hershey Company, and a solution to map all public defibrillators in the U.K. for the National Health Service (NHS) and the British Heart Foundation. 

Bigbasket acquires DailyNinja

Online grocery delivery startup Bigbasket has acquired 100% stake in Bengaluru-based milk delivery app DailyNinja. The online grocery platform has paid around $15-20 Million for the acquisition.

The acquisition will allow Bigbasket to consolidate its leadership position, especially in the subscription delivery space in Bengaluru. It will also help Bigbasket’s milk delivery service -- BB Daily -- grow its daily business by 150%-200% over the next 12 months. DailyNinja currently has around 110,000 customers transacting daily which will now help BB Daily augment its user base.

Currently, BB Daily makes about 160,000 deliveries per day including a wide range of fresh fruits and vegetables, bread, dairy & eggs and a vast collection of daily essentials like breakfast cereals, tender coconut, personal care and baby care products etc.

BB Daily will also have access to DailyNinja’s network of 2000 milkman partners spread across India. The merger with Bigbasket will be an opportunity for DailyNinja to double its business within a month by leveraging BB’s supply chain capabilities. DailyNinja’s customers will be able to access BB Daily’s extensive non-milk range.

Bigbasket has been focusing on growing its subscription business to serve the recurring consumption needs of its customers at low delivery costs ever since the launch of BB Daily in December 2018. Currently, Bigbasket users pay ₹40 and above for delivery charges, which is forgone when a user opts for a subscription package.

Lyft acquires Halo Cabs

US ride-hailing service Lyft has reportedly acquired startup Halo Cars, which focuses on rooftop advertising. Lyft like other ride-hailing services is looking into newer avenues in search of profitability and the acquisition of Halo Cars is another step towards.

Although ride-hailing services have gained immense popularity over the past few years, most are still running into losses. This has seen most ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft pumping money into other side businesses with the aim of registering profits.

Lyft confirmed that it has purchased digital car-top advertiser Halo Cars although it didn't disclose the buyout amount. The acquisition is being seen by many analysts as a brilliant move by the ride-hailing company, which has been struggling for quite some time and is desperately searching for profitability in its business. Halo is likely to aid Lyft in its pursuit of profitability.

Halo Cars was founded in 2018 and have operations in quite a few big US cities such as New York and Chicago. However, it is a relatively new and small company, which makes more sense for Lyft to buy the company, as it is also focusing on acquiring the team that is likely to also join its media division. Digital car-top advertising is one of the easier avenues for both traditional taxis and ride-hailing companies to generate revenues.

Twitter buys Stories Template Maker Chroma Labs

Twitter has acquired California-based Chroma Labs that develops tools for short-form Video and photo creation and was founded by seven Facebook and Instagram workers in 2018.

The Chroma Stories app lets users fill in stylish layout templates and frames for posting collages and more to Instagram Stories, Snapchat and more. According to Sensor Tower, nearly 615,000 people have installed the Chroma Stories app. During the past year, Chroma Labs has enabled creators and businesses around the world to create millions of stories with the Chroma Stories app.

Chroma Labs' co-founders include Instagram 'Boomerang' inventor John Barnett, CTO Alex Li, who was an engineering manager on Facebook Photos and Instagram Stories, and Joshua Harris who was a product design manager on Facebook's augmented reality team. With Chroma Stories, users can choose between retro filters, holiday-themed frames and collage templates.