Cognizant acquires French tech firm Galileo Performance
Cognizant, a NASDAQ listed leading IT, BPO and consulting services vendor headquartered in Teaneck, has announced that it has bought out the Galileo Performance, the Paris-based consulting firm focused on the measurement, management and continuous optimization of IT system performance for an unrevealed amount.
Quoting Cognizant president and chief executive officer Francisco D’Souza, a website reports that the acquisition of Galileo Performance will facilitate the New Jersy-based IT firm to offer top-notch testing services to the French companies. He said that the inclusion of French-speaking professionals in Cognizant’s rolls would help the firm to improve its services to the clients in the region.
On the other hand, senior vice-president and global head of Cognizant’s Testing Practice, Sumithra Gomatam, acquiring Galileo Performance, with its over 10,000 testing professionals, will help to increase and harmonize the rapidly-developing global testing performance of Cognizant, as well as boost the US firm’s business in France.
Commenting on the acquisition, Galileo Performance managing director Abel Guerrini remarked that since both firms share the same obligation to client satisfaction and excellence of delivery, collectively they will be able to deliver an all-inclusive suite of software testing services covering enterprise services, consulting and functionality testing by means of a native French-speaking competence.
Another business news website reports that there has been a significant growth in the outsourced IT testing business owing to their importance in reducing the cost of quality assurance as well as software maintenance. In addition, outsourced testing is also witnessing a growth as it ensures a firm configuration of IT with business purposes, superior functioning efficiency and enhanced governance and risk alleviation. Meanwhile, industry research organization IDC has predicted a five-year multiple growths of 19 per cent per annum for global testing services alone, attaining a projected $17.7 billion by 2013.
Galileo Performance is the second buy out by Cognizant during 2010. In May this year, the US IT firm had acquired London-based international program management consulting firm The PIPC Group with a view to expand as well as balance its own project management and consulting facilities. Cognizant has been following a policy of acquiring small firms that would endow it with explicit expertise and domain proficiency. In fact, six out of the last eight “tuck-in” buy-outs by Cognizant were either in the consulting or sophisticated expertise domains, including KPO, program management and enterprise analytics space.
The tech firm, which earned revenues worth $3.279 billion in the 2009 fiscal, offers an assortment of IT consulting and BPO services, inclusive of complex systems integration, business and technology consulting and application development and maintenance. As on June 30, 2009, Cognizant had more than 50 delivery hubs worldwide employing over 64,000 professionals.