 "Santosh Thomas")
What kind of revenue you expect through Equinox acquisition?
We expect approximately $40 million of annualised revenue from this acquisition.
How big is the market in Europe?
The overall European IT services market is roughly the same size as the North American IT services market, yet the penetration of the global-delivery model in Europe is currently a fraction of that in North America. As such, Cognizant believes that Europe merits its continued focus and investment. Today, European clients are looking to buy a broader range of services—consulting, applications, infrastructure, and business process services. Another significant shift Cognizant is seeing in Europe is that clients want to navigate both cyclical and structural shifts simultaneously. As such, they are seeking a partner who can drive cost-savings and innovation on one integrated platform, and are increasingly turning to partners such as Cognizant.
How big is the Consulting and Financial Services business for Cognizant now?
Financial Services, including Insurance, is the largest industry segment for Cognizant. It contributes 42% of the company’s revenue. During the June 2013 quarter, financial services grew six% sequentially and 24% year-over-year.
Cognizant Business Consulting (CBC) contributes approximately 6-7% of the company’s revenue and has been growing faster than the company average for many years. CBC has seen a rapid growth trajectory and has over 3,500 consultants today. The consultants have a mix of cross-industry skills (such as change management, post-merger integration, IT and business strategy, and business process re-engineering) and deep industry knowledge across multiple industries.
Any change in the management team at Equinox?
No. Europe is a very important market and the company continues to focus on the same. In particular, Cognizant focuses on building local teams on the ground across key markets in Europe such as France to address the specific needs of European clients. The leadership team of Equinox will help us fulfill those needs in the French market.
It is important to note that the European market demands a localised approach to address linguistic and cultural differences. Cognizant’s strategy is to build its talent for local domain, regulatory and language capabilities and better cultural compatibility to enter into transformational client partnerships.
Cognizant started serving the French market a few years ago. Cognizant France has its headquarters in Paris, an office in Lyons with a focus on serving the Life Sciences industry, and a delivery/operations center in Grenoble serving French-speaking clients, with strong expertise in quality engineering and assurance, and mobile applications.
Today’s acquisition of Equinox Consulting will further enhance Cognizant’s integrated global platform for financial services clients to “run better” by improving performance efficiencies as well as “run different” by building new business capabilities and driving innovation.
How many acquisitions has Cognizant made since 2010?
Cognizant has made seven tuck-under acquisitions since 2010, three of which have been Consulting acquisitions.
