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Cognizant Technology Solutions is beefing up its mergers and acquisitions team in India, bringing in consultants as part of the information technology firm’s focus on inorganic growth for the year ahead.
The New Jersey-based company has hired at least five executives from consulting firms such as PwC, Deloitte and EY in India as part of the corporate development team to support its M&A efforts, at least four people told ET.
The recently hired executives include former associate director for management consulting at PwC India Debopam De, former director for M&A transaction services at Deloitte Sujan Sanisetty, and former strategy and transaction executive at EY Tanmoy Dhara, according to their LinkedIn updates and people in the know.
These executives did not respond to requests for comment sent on their LinkedIn accounts.
“As a company policy, we do not comment on personnel matters of specific business units or functions,” a Cognizant spokesperson said.
While Cognizant is expanding the India team, its head of corporate development that looks at strategic M&As, Timothy Crowhurst, is leaving the company. The Cognizant spokesperson said Crowhurst, who has executed more than 30 transactions since joining the company in 2017, will be leaving to pursue new opportunities.
Peter Zerwas, the current M&A lead for Europe, Middle East and Africa and Asia Pacific, will step in to lead M&A sourcing and execution on an interim basis, the spokesperson said. Daryl Green, vice-president of the global leadership team, will continue to focus on strategic due diligence, value capture and post-merger integration. He will report to senior vice-president for global sales platforms and pricing Blake Brundidge, who will assume expanded responsibilities for this function.
Crowhurst, a former Goldman Sachs managing director and founder & managing partner at White Oak Merchant Banking, did not respond to a request for comment sent on LinkedIn.
Nasdaq-listed Cognizant, which serves its global clients primarily from India where around 70% of its employees are based, competes with the likes of Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and HCLTech.
The company completed more than 25 acquisitions including Mobica, Utegration, Devbridge, Servian, ESG Mobility and Linium over a time period of eight years.
“Tim (Crowhurst) is probably among the M&A heads who has done most acquisitions including the $1.3 billion Belcan in September last year. Cognizant now has plans to increase the M&A team based out of India and aims to grow its team to 8-10 people. This is to boost its inorganic play which it is betting big on,” one of the persons said.
Another person said the company is growing inorganically and wants to have an edge at a time when the IT industry is undergoing a lull in organic revenue expansion.
Cognizant, which late last month raised its revenue guidance for 2025, expects acquisitions, including the 2024 purchase of Thirdera and Belcan, to contribute about 2.5 percentage points to its projected annual revenue growth 4.7-6.7%.
For the second quarter ended June, Cognizant reported revenue growth of 7.2% year-over-year in constant currency to $5.2 billion, including approximately 4 percentage points of inorganic contribution from Belcan, which operates in the aerospace and defence space.
The healthy financial performance and forecast from the company come at a time when most Indian IT majors are reporting negative to sub-5% growth rates.
Last year, Crowhurst had publicly stated the company’s plans on LinkedIn to expand its India M&A team. “Acquisitions help accelerate our strategy, enhancing our capabilities, and positioning. We are looking for passionate and action-oriented M&A practitioners in India to join our global team,” the post had read.
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