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Mr Francisco D’Souza

Our Bureau

Chennai, Nov. 3 Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation, the US-based provider of information technology, consulting, and business process outsourcing services, expects to end the year better than what it anticipated at the beginning of this year when the business environment was slow.

It is now likely to end the calendar year 2009 with revenues of $3.255 billion, up at least 15.5 per cent over revenues of $2.816 billion reported in 2008. At the end of the first quarter, it said that fiscal 2009 revenue is expected to be at least $3.1 billion, up at least 10 per cent compared to 2008.

For the third quarter ended September 30, 2009, Cognizant, which has most of its employees working at its offshore development centres in India, reported a 22 per cent jump in net income to $137 million ($113 million). Quarterly revenue rose by 16 per cent to $853.5 million ($735 million) and 10 per cent sequentially.

While announcing the first quarter financial results, Mr Francisco D’Souza, President and CEO, said: “In the current economic downturn, as our clients face fundamental structural changes within their industries, they are looking for a partner that brings industry insight, consulting expertise, intellectual capital and world-class thinking to the table.”

However, things have changed in the three quarters when there are signs of recovery.

“We experienced strong organic growth across all industry sectors, geographies and service lines this quarter. The sequential revenue increase of $76.9 million is the largest in the history of the company,” he said at the end of the third quarter. “Despite the ongoing weak global economic environment, we delivered strong, broad-based revenue growth during the quarter,” said Mr Gordon Coburn, Chief Financial and Operating Officer.

“In addition, we continued to strengthen our balance sheet with our cash, short- and long-term investments increasing by over $195 million during the quarter to a total of approximately $1.34 billion,” he said.

Cognizant had a gross addition of 46 new customers during the third quarter. It closed the quarter with 570 active customers.

During the quarter, the number of accounts which Cognizant considers to be strategic and have the potential to ramp up to at least $5 million to more than $50 million in annual revenue increased by 5. This brings its total number of strategic clients to 139.

“At the end of the third quarter, our worldwide headcount (including both technical professionals and support staff) totalled over 68,000. This represents a net increase of over 3,900 people during the third quarter,” Mr Coburn told analysts.

More Stories on : Financial Performance | Outlook | Software

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