Wipro buys US-based consultancy firm Cooper for $8.5 million

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 Franscicso 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.

“With Cooper, an acknowledged leader and pioneer in the design community with roots on the East and West coast, we will now be the preeminent firm for world-class UX (User Experience) and interaction design. This coupled with Designit’s global strategic design services and our world-class engineering capability, will allow us to support the complete digital journey for our clients, helping them transform their businesses for the future,” Rajan Kohli, Global Head and Senior Vice President, Wipro Digital, was quoted in the statement.

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.

“Designit and Cooper share a strikingly similar culture and a shared passion for turning complex problems into solutions people love,” Alan Cooper, co-founder of Cooper, was quoted saying in the statement.