Cognizant to acquire Noida-based salesforce consulting firm SaaSfocus

Acquisition to help Nasdaq-listed firm to enhance its cloud consulting capabilities, expand presence in APAC

Cognizant has entered into an agreement to acquire Noida-headquartered salesforce consulting firm SaaSfocus in its bid to augment its consultancy capabilities in cloud space, apart from expanding its geographical reach in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.

The US-based company, which did not disclose the financial details of the deal, said the transaction is likely to be completed in the fourth quarter of this calendar year.

“SaaSfocus is a highly respected company with deep domain expertise. On the one hand, it has a strong geographical play along with competency, and on other, it has a future dimension as we increase our capabilities in the digital space,” said Jayajyoti Sengupta, head of APAC at Cognizant.

According to the information technology (IT) major, the APAC region is one of the high growth markets for the company, which now accounts for around 6 per cent of its total revenue.

Established in 2009, SaaSfocus currently has around 350 employees in India, with expertise in financial services, insurance, manufacturing, and automotive industries, and the company has executed 1,500 projects so far with various clients.

“A large employee base of SaaSfocus is in India with a sizeable team in Australia. This acquisition will help us build up local precision with strong local delivery strength,” Sengupta added.

This is the first acquisition of Cognizant in the Indian market in recent years, which has done many acquisitions in established markets like the US and Europe.

In May this year, the Nasdaq-listed firm had acquired Belgian firm Hedera Consulting, which specialises in business advisory and data analytics services. Apart from Belgium, it also has presence in Italy, Switzerland, the Nordics, the UK, and the Middle East.  

The IT firm, in March this year, had acquired Kentucky-based Bolder Healthcare Solutions, which provides revenue cycle management solutions to hospitals, physicians, and other specialist health care organisations in the US.

It has also acquired Zone, one of the UK’s leading independent full-service digital agencies specialising in customer experience, digital strategy, technology, and content creation.

Cognizant reported a 3 per cent decline in its net profit at $456 million on a year-on-year (YoY) basis for the second quarter ended June 2018, owing to net non-operating foreign exchange losses of $80 million arising from rupee depreciation along with initial funding for the Cognizant US Foundation. During the quarter, revenue of the firm, which competes fiercely with large Indian IT firms, including Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys, rose 9.2 per cent on YoY basis to $4.01 billion.