nasdaq ctsh nasdaq 100 component s & p 500 component industry it services it consulting predecessor dun & bradstreet founded january 26 1994 founder kumar mahadeva francisco d souza headquarters teaneck new jersey united states area served worldwide key people francisco d souza ceo lakshmi narayanan vice chairman services it business consulting and outsourcing services revenue us 12.416 billion 2015 1 operating income us 2.142 billion 2015 1 profit us 1.623 billion 2015 1 total assets us 13.065 billion 2015 1 total equity us 9.278 billion 2015 1 number of employees 244 300 2016 q2 2 website www.cognizant.com cognizant technology solutions corp is an american multinational corporation that provides custom information technology consulting and business process outsourcing services . it is headquartered in teaneck new jersey united states . cognizant is listed in the nasdaq 100 and the s & p 500 indices . originally founded as an in house technology unit of dun & bradstreet in 1994 3 cognizant started serving external clients in 1996 . 3 it made an ipo in 1998 after a series of corporate splits and restructures of its parent companies . it was the first software services firm listed on the nasdaq . 3 during the dot com bust it grew by accepting the application maintenance work that the bigger players were unwilling to perform . gradually it ventured into application development complex systems integration and consulting work . cognizant saw a period of fast growth during the 2000s becoming a fortune 500 company in 2011 . 4 in 2015 the fortune magazine named it as the world s fourth most admired it services company . 5 contents 1 history 1.1 acquisitions 2 services 3 business model 3.1 outsourcing controversy and hiring in the u.s. 4 operations 4.1 regions 4.2 business units 5 corporate affairs 5.1 marketing and branding 5.2 finance 5.3 corporate social responsibility 5.4 environmental record 5.5 fortune 500 6 others 7 see also 8 references 9 external links history edit cognizant began its journey as dun & bradstreet satyam software dbss 6 7 established as dun & bradstreet s in house technology unit focused on implementing large scale it projects for dun & bradstreet businesses . in 1996 the company started pursuing customers beyond dun & bradstreet . 8 in 1996 dun & bradstreet spun off several of its subsidiaries including erisco ims international nielsen media research pilot software strategic technologies and dbss to form a new company called cognizant corporation . three months later in 1997 dbss renamed itself to cognizant technology solutions . in july 1997 dun & bradstreet bought satyam s 24 % stake in dbss for 3.4 million . 9 10 headquarters were moved to the united states and in march 1998 kumar mahadeva was named ceo . 11 operating as a division of the cognizant corporation the company mainly focused on y2k related projects and web development . 12 in 1998 the parent company cognizant corporation split into two companies ims health and nielsen media research . 13 after this restructuring cognizant technology solutions became a public subsidiary of ims health . in june 1998 ims health partially spun off the company conducting an initial public offering of the cognizant stock . the company raised 34 million less than what the ims health underwriters had hoped for . they earmarked the money for debt payments and upgrading company offices . 12 kumar mahadeva decided to reduce the company s dependence on y2k projects by q1 1999 26 % of company s revenues came from y2k projects compared with 49 % in early 1998 . believing that the 16.6 billion erp software market was saturated mahadeva decided to refrain from large scale erp implementation projects . instead he focused on applications management which accounted for 37 % of cognizant s revenue in q1 1999 . 8 cognizant s revenues in 2002 were 229 million and the company had zero debt with 100 million in the bank . 12 during the dotcom bust the company grew by taking on the maintenance projects that larger it services companies did not want . 14 in 2003 ims health sold its entire 56 % stake in cognizant which instituted a poison pill provision to prevent hostile takeover attempts . 12 15 kumar mahadeva resigned as the ceo in 2003 and was replaced by lakshmi narayanan . 16 gradually the company s services portfolio expanded across the it services landscape and into business process outsourcing bpo and business consulting . lakshmi narayanan was succeeded by the kenya born francisco d souza in 2006 . cognizant experienced a period of fast growth during the 2000s as reflected by its appearance in fortune magazine s 100 fastest growing companies list for ten consecutive years from 2003 to 2012 . 17 18 in september 2014 cognizant struck its biggest deal acquiring healthcare it services provider trizetto corp for 2.7 billion . 19 cognizant shares rose nearly 3 percent in premarket trading . 20 acquisitions edit company acquired country date business reference frontica business solutions norway october 2016 it services & solutions 21 idea couture canada july 2016 digital services innovation and experience design 22 heliocentric el salvador may 2016 bpo services 23 quick left inc. usa may 2016 mobile & web apps 24 red associates denmark april 2016 human sciences 25 kbace technologies usa january 2016 oracle cloud erp 26 storebrand baltic lithuania nov 2015 lithuanian it unit of norway s storebrand 27 odecee australia november 2014 it consulting and bpo services 28 cadient group usa october 2014 digital healthcare 29 trizetto corp usa september 2014 healthcare payer software provider revenue cycle software consulting software bpo hosting 30 itaas interactive tv solutions usa april 2014 digital video services 31 valuesource technologies india october 2013 it services 32 equinox consulting france october 2013 financial services consulting firm 33 c1 group 6 companies germany december 2012 btconsult gbbb process and technology consulting sap ; c 1 solutions gmbh consulting and enterprise solutions sap bpm ecm erm ; psc management consulting gmbh process and technology consulting ; c 1 setcon gmbh software engineering and testing ; enterprise services ag a swiss company focused on process and it consulting ; c 1 holding gmbh 34 ing us usa june 2012 technology 35 zaffera usa september 2011 sap consulting 36 corelogic india india july 2011 mortgage processing 37 galileo performance france june 2010 consulting related to the measurement management and continuous optimization of it system performance 38 pipc group uk may 2010 program & project management consulting 39 ubs india service center india october 2009 business process outsourcing industry research 40 pepperweed advisors us 8 september 2009 business consulting program management 41 active intelligence canada february 2009 consulting implementation and support services for oracle retail merchandising planning and optimization suite 42 strategic vision consulting us june 2008 business consulting for media and entertainment companies 43 t systems india germany march 2008 system integration 44 marketrx us 16 november 2007 life sciences analytics healthcare kpo 45 aimnet us september 2006 it infrastructure services 46 fathom consulting canada april 2005 telecom & automotive it services 47 ygyan consulting india february 2004 sap consulting 48 infopulse netherlands december 2003 it services 49 aces international us april 2003 siebel crm consulting 47 american express travel related services account from silverline technologies us sep 2002 financial services 50 unitedhealthcare ireland limited ireland june 2002 healthcare services a subsidiary of the unitedhealth group 51 services edit cognizant provides information technology consulting and bpo services . these include business & technology consulting systems integration application development & maintenance it infrastructure services analytics business intelligence data warehousing crm supply chain management engineering & manufacturing solutions erp r & d outsourcing and testing solutions . cognizant digital works created to help clients rapidly build pilot and scale enterprise level digital initiatives is central to cognizant s efforts to help clients drive business change across their operations and inform their go to market activities . 52 business model edit cognizant s original corporate headquarters in chennai now an offshore delivery center . like many other it services firms cognizant follows a global delivery model based on offshore software r & d and offshore outsourcing . the company has a number of offshore development centers outside the united states and near shore centers in the u.s. europe and south america . in its early years cognizant gained business from a number of american and european companies with the help of the dun & bradstreet brand . the company s senior executives envisaged the firm as a provider of high end customer services on par with the six contemporary major system integrators accenture bearingpoint capgemini e & y deloitte and ibm but at lower prices . 53 outsourcing controversy and hiring in the u.s. edit cognizant is number one in top 10 companies receiving h 1b visas to bring immigrant workers to the united states . the company has been steadily increasing its u.s. work force . in january 2011 the company announced plans to expand its u.s. delivery centers including a new 1 000 person facility in phoenix arizona . 54 in february 2011 cognizant said it had 60 full time recruiters actively hiring in the u.s. 55 in 2009 an investigation by the us department of labor dol found cognizant in violation of the h 1b provisions of the immigration and nationality administrative act . dol found that 67 of its workers hired under the h 1b program were underpaid . according to cognizant this was due to unintentional administrative errors . the dol investigation revealed that cognizant had achieved 99.7 % compliance in its management of h 1b visa related issues . 56 the company paid us 509 607 in back wages to the 67 employees . no fines or visa restrictions were imposed since dol did not discover any willful violations . joseph petrecca the director of the wage and hour division s northern new jersey district office praised the company for taking immediate steps to correct the violations this level of cooperation sets a standard for others in the industry . 57 in 2016 the company was the subject of a lawsuit by workers for walt disney world who said workers from india were brought into the united states on h 1b visas in order to replace them . 58 operations edit regions edit in addition to its global headquarters and delivery center in teaneck n.j. as well as the u.s. headquarters in college station texas cognizant has twenty one additional u.s. delivery centers bentonville arkansas ; bridgewater new jersey ; des moines iowa ; holliston massachusetts ; minot north dakota ; phoenix arizona ; southfield michigan ; williston vermont ; st. louis missouri ; union new jersey ; sacramento california ; charlotte north carolina ; oklahoma city oklahoma ; washington pennsylvania ; malvern pennsylvania ; naperville illinois ; carmel indiana linthicum maryland and tampa florida . 59 the company has more than 233 000 employees globally of which over 150 000 are in india across 10 locations with a plurality in chennai . the other centers of the company are in bangalore coimbatore gurgaon noida hyderabad kochi kolkata 60 mangalore corelogic mumbai and pune . the company has local regional and global delivery centers in the uk hungary spain china the philippines canada brazil argentina and mexico . 61 business units edit cognizant is organized into several verticals and horizontal units . the vertical units focus on specific industries such as banking & financial services healthcare manufacturing and retail . the horizontals focus on specific technologies or process areas such as analytics mobile computing bpo and testing . both horizontal and vertical units have business consultants who together form the organization wide cognizant business consulting cbc team . cognizant is among the largest recruiters of mbas in the industry ; they are involved in business development and business analysis for it services projects . according to the 2015 financial statements the major portion of cognizant s