For the general term, see Cognizance.

For the co-founder of Australian company

Cognescent Corporation, see Thomas Reardon.
Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation
Cognizant's logo.svg
Type
Public
Traded as
NASDAQ: CTSH (Class A)
NASDAQ-100 component
S&P 500 component
Industry IT services, IT consulting
Predecessor Dun & Bradstreet
Founded 26 January 1994; 25 years ago
Founders Kumar Mahadeva[1]
Headquarters Teaneck, New Jersey, U.S.
Number of locations
166 (as of 2019)[2]
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Brian Humphries (CEO)
Services
OutsourcingConsultingManaged services
Revenue Increase US$16.12 billion (2018)[3]
Operating income
Increase US$2.80 billion (2018)[3]
Net income
Increase US$2.10 billion (2018)[3]
Total assets Increase US$15.91 billion (2018)[3]
Total equity Increase US$11.42 billion (2018)[3]
Number of employees
288,200
Website www.cognizant.com
Cognizant is an American multinational corporation that provides IT services,
including digital, technology, consulting, and operations services. It is
headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey, United States. Cognizant is part of the
NASDAQ-100 and trades under CTSH. It was founded as an in-house technology unit of
Dun & Bradstreet in 1994,[4] and started serving external clients in 1996.[4]

After a series of corporate reorganizations there was an initial public offering in

1998.[5] Following the Y2K and dot-com boom of the late 1990s, when companies
sharpened their focus on hard business parameters such as revenues and profits, the
company grew by delivering critical application development and maintenance
services.

Cognizant had a period of fast growth during the 2000s, becoming a Fortune 500
company in 2011.

The company has been involved in a number of controversies in India, the United
Kingdom, and the United States.

Contents
1 History
2 Acquisitions
3 Services
4 Business model
5 Operations
5.1 Regions
5.2 Business units
6 Corporate affairs
6.1 Management
6.2 Finance
6.3 Corporate social responsibility
6.4 Awards
7 Controversies
7.1 India
7.1.1 Bribery
7.1.2 Companies Act violations
7.1.3 Discrimination
7.1.4 Layoffs
7.1.5 Tax evasion
7.2 Ireland
7.2.1 Working conditions
7.3 United States
7.3.1 Corruption
7.3.2 Crawford & Company lawsuit
7.3.3 H-1B visa violations
7.3.4 Working conditions and mental health issues
8 See also
9 References
10 External links
History
Cognizant began 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 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. 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 enterprise resource planning software market
was saturated, Kumar 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.

Cognizant's old logo

Cognizant's old logo
In 2003, IMS Health sold its entire 56% stake in Cognizant, which instituted a
poison pill provision to prevent hostile takeover attempts.[12][14] Kumar Mahadeva
resigned as the CEO in 2003, and was replaced by Lakshmi Narayanan.[15] 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 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.[16]
[17]

In September 2014, Cognizant struck its biggest deal, acquiring healthcare IT

services provider TriZetto Corp for $2.7 billion.[18] Cognizant Shares, rose nearly
3 percent in pre-market trading.[19]

On 24 June 2015, the company signed a multimillion-dollar agreement with Escorts

Group in India to help Escorts' businesses in digital transformation and
modernizing its operations across all business segments.[20]

On 30 June 2015, it partnered with Singapore-based supermarket retailer NTUC

FairPrice to perform digital transformation in NTUC's business to improve
personalized and consistent customer service across multiple channels.[21]

In April 2018, Cognizant and a consortium of Indian life insurers announced their
development of a blockchain solution aimed at increasing efficiency through
facilitating cross-company data sharing. The platform which is built on Corda, a
DLT platform developed by R3 was claimed to reduce dependency on third-party data
intermediaries and aggregators for obtaining consumer profiles and policy details
such as KYC due diligence, financial and medical underwriting, risk assessment,
fraud detection and regulatory compliance.[22]

Acquisitions