Wipro buys Consultancy firm Cooper

India’s third largest IT services company Wipro has acquired US based design and business consultancy firm Cooper, which counts Google and Starbucks as clients, as it looks to strengthen its digital offerings to clients globally.

Cooper, which Wipro is buying for $ 8.5 million (Rs 56 crore), will be integrated with Designit, the digital arm of the Indian firm as CEO Abidali Neemuchwala deepens the company’s expertise in digital offerings and focus on earning higher revenue. Cooper’s founders -Sue Cooper and Alan Cooper will join Wipro to push the company’s aggressive digital strategy. Alan Cooper is considered the ‘Father of Visual Basic,’ and is a prominent player in interaction design, UX and professional design education for more than 25 years.

Wipro also gets access offices in New York and San Francisco with the acquisition. Wipro said Cooper would also help the company expand its reach in North American market and add capabilities in professional design education. Wipro acquired Designit for nearly Rs 595 crore in July, 2015 to add design and digital technology capabilities.

Wipro’s digital arm and Designit currently serve clients from across 16 offices in different markets in the world. The acquisition process is expected to be completed in the October-December quarter of the current financial year, subject to customary closing condition.

Wipro to buy HealthPlan Services

Wipro Ltd has agreed to buy HealthPlan services, a Florida, US based company that caters to the health insurance sector for $460 Million. This is the third buyout by India’s third largest software services exported in less than three months.

Earlier in December, Wipro spent $78 Million to buy Cellent, a German Technology Company that implements and maintains SAP (Systems Applications and Products) software for clients in automobile and manufacturing segments. Later, it bought a securities processing and fund administration services provider Viteos Group for $130 Million as the company looks to expand its portfolio of services to financial companies.

Both HealthcarePlan services and Viteos Group offer solutions over cloud computing platforms or what is called as Business process as a service. The partnership with HealthPlan services positions Wipro to participate in the shift of the US Health insurance industry towards a customer centric business model.

HealthPlan services strengthen Wipro position in the health insurance exchange market while offering synergies with Wipro presence in the Managed Medicare and commercial group insurance markets. This is Wipro fourth acquisition in last 12 months. 

Wipro buys German Firm Cellent

Wipro Ltd has bought Cellent AG, a German Technology company that implements and maintains SAP (systems applications and products) software for clients in automobile and manufacturing segments, for $78 Million. The purchase is the latest move by India’s third largest software firm to scale up its business in the DACH or Germany, Austria and Switzerland of Western Europe.

This is Bengaluru based Wipro second purchase in the region this year. It bought Denmark based Designit for $95 Million in July to strengthen its presence in the digital space. Cellent is a well-established player with marquee customers, a well-known brand and has strong local talent. Cellent client include marquee car maker Daimler AG and lens maker Carl Zeiss AG and SAP is a business software used to run basic functions in finance, human resources and manufacturing.

Wipro bought Cellent from its parent firm, German bank Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg. Wipro will also see Cellent’s more than 800 consultants join the firm even as it expects to close the acquisition by the fourth quarter of 2015-16. Many buyouts by homegrown information technology firm this year are in the SAP space. Earlier this year, Infosys paid $200 Million to buy automation technology provider Panaya.

Mid-tier Bengaluru based software exported Mindtree bought UK based Bluefin Solutions, which helps migrate SAP installed software, like ERP to the cloud. Wipro 8000 strong manufacturing and hi-tech segment is the second largest industry vertical, behind banking and finance. 

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.