Cognizant to acquire SaaSfocus

Cognizant will acquire SaaSfocus, a provider of Salesforce consulting services, for an undisclosed amount as the IT major looks to further strengthen its business in the Indian and Australian markets.

SaaSfocus which is privately held offers digital transformation services leveraging the Salesforce platform. It has over 350 Salesforce consultants in Australia and India. The acquisition will help expand Cognizant’s end-to-end digital transformation services and Salesforce cloud capabilities in the region, including India and Australia. Cognizant already offers a wide range of Salesforce solutions.

Combining Cognizant global capabilities, deep domain expertise and digital solutions with SaaSfocus specialized Salesforce consulting competencies will help SaaSfocus accelerate clients digital transformation journeys. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2018, subject to certain closing conditions.

French IT services group Atos to buy Syntel

French IT services group Atos has agreed to buy US Information Technology group Syntel in a move to significantly expand its presence in North America. This transaction is a major step in the strategy of Atos to reach a global scale.

Atos, which provides IT services to sectors ranging from aerospace to retail, said the deal to buy Syntel will strengthen its activities in banking, finance, and insurance and allow it to provide complete IT solutions to its U.S. customers.

The deal will significantly enhance the business & platform solutions division's growth and profitability profile through an extended digital services offering, cutting-edge India-based delivery platforms, as well as revenue and cost synergies.

The acquisition of Syntel, a 38-year-old company with 23,000 employees, comes after last year's unsuccessful attempt by Atos to buy Gemalto. Syntel provides technology and IT services utilizing a network of software development centres in India.

Team Lease acquires ASAP Info Systems

Leading staffing company TeamLease services Ltd has acquired Bengaluru based ASAP Info Systems Pvt. Ltd for Rs. 67 crore. The company said the acquisition will help it expand its footprint in the core IT hiring space. ASAP Info Systems has over 1000 associates and 171 core employees.

This transaction creates an opening balance for TeamLease to build an IT staffing business. The acquisition is also in sync with strategy of margin expansion through new product verticals and new client segments. The transaction will be done through TeamLease wholly owned subsidiary, TeamLease staffing Services Private Limited. The transaction will be immediately accretive to TeamLease earnings per share.

TeamLease core business is to provide temporary staffing solutions for companies across sectors. Its clients include Microsoft India, LG Electronics, ICICI Lombard, Bata India and Larsen & Toubro. TeamLease was also the first temporary staffing solutions firm to get listed on the Indian bourses, earlier this year. TeamLease has for long serviced IT Companies for non-IT staffing positions, but now expects ASAP Info Systems to help continue expansion in the space after merging its current offices.

Wipro to acquire Designit

In line with its strategy to equip itself tapping the opportunities in the digital space, Wipro, India’s third largest IT services company will acquire Designit, a Denmark based global strategic design firm for a consideration of around Euro 85 Million. The acquisition is expected to strengthen the capability of Wipro Digital, the digital business unit of the company which it set up in March this year.

Founded in 1991, Designit is considered one of the world’s largest privately held firms with an employee base of around 300 and design studios across nine cities globally. The company which reported revenues of Euro 27 Million provides strategic design, user experience and interaction design services to many global brands in segments such as Healthcare, banking, automotive and retail. Some of its global clientele includes companies such as Cisco, Harman, Brussels Airlines, Vodafone, Jabra, Danske Bank and Telefonica.

With the change in the technology buying behavior by global enterprises, the vendors who were offering traditional IT outsourcing services are seen aggressively looking at newer areas like social, mobility, big data and analytics and cloud wherein they are trying to position themselves as end-to-end digital partners. Strengthening the design capability holds key in these areas as it impacts the consumer experiences in a big way.

Wipro has been one of the most acquisitive IT services companies in India. The company has so far acquired around nine companies through the largest one so has been Infocrossing which it bought in August 2007 for about $600 Million. 

EXL Service to buy analytics company RPM

EXL service is a provider IT services, decision analytics, operation management, outsourcing, and transformation services company. It is primarily engaged in providing a range of outsourcing services, business process outsourcing, and infrastructure services. EXL services are structured around insurance, banking, financial services, utilities, healthcare, transportation, and travel industries.

The company said it is buying analytics firm RPM Direct for about $74 Million to expand its portfolio. EXL said the deal involves $47 Million in cash up to $23 Million of contingent cash consideration and $4 Million of restricted stock. The acquisition likely to close by the end of March is expected to add to EXL adjusted earnings per share. RPM will become the part of EXL Analytics Group.

RPM possesses a unique combination of strong analytical and data management capabilities with deep industry expertise in the P&C, life and health insurance markets. RPM technology helps analyze large consumer sets to segment populations, predict response rates, forecast customer lifetime value, design, and execute targeted, multi-channel marketing campaigns. The firm’s focus areas include the insurance industry.

RPM maintains its own database and supports data on over 250 Million consumers and 120 Million US households. The quantity and unique combination of data attributes managed by RPM drives optimal, data driven decision making and enable it to build models that analyze prospects individually. RPM employs proprietary predictive analytics and domain specific pattern recognition algorithms to deliver results through a flexible, on demand service model. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2015.

Cognizant Buys Trizetto

Cognizant is a global leader in information technology, consulting, and business process services. It provide services such as claims processing, billing and call center operations to insurers, hospitals and some state run health care exchanges set up under President Barack Obama’s affordable care Act, as known as Obamacare. Colorado based Trizetto provides information technology services, including care management and the administration of benefits. 

Cognizant struck up its biggest deal, acquiring healthcare IT services provider Trizetto Corp for $2.7 Billion. It is the biggest acquisition in Indian IT sector. Healthcare is undergoing structural shifts due to reform, cost pressure, and shifting responsibilities between payers and providers. Trizetto will provide Cognizant to increase their market share. In 2008, Apax acquired Cognizant, a London based private equity firm. Trizetto was built up through 16 acquisitions in last 15 years, according to their website. It serves about 350 health care plans and supplies software to almost 245,000 doctors and other care providers.

Following this acquisition, Cognizant grip on the segment will increase further, leaving behind peers like WIPRO, Infosys, and TCS. At present, healthcare accounts for around 26 percent of Cognizant revenue, which is estimated to go up to 30 percent on integration with Trizetto. Cognizant and Trizetto have had a long-term relationship. This acquisition represents a great opportunity to integrate services across three horizons. Traditional IT services, high growth businesses like management consulting, business process services, and IT infrastructure services and will provide greater value to clients.

There are lot of acquisitions and changes going on in Indian Healthcare sector. E-commerce sector is focusing on providing medical facilities online. Companies like Ranbaxy, Cipla, and Sun Pharma are into manufacturing of new medical products. IT sector is all set to provide services to clients and hospitals. Tech giants are developing products which includes health apps or which can tell people health status. We can assume that technology is going to play a major role in Healthcare sector and it is going to benefit millions of people. It is estimated that Healthcare business is to grow at a rapid pace.