COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS CORP

Cognizant was established in 1994 in Chennai, India, as Dun & Bradstreet Satyam Software (DBSS), a 76:24 joint venture between Dun & Bradstreet and Satyam Computers, with Kumar Mahadeva, and Srini Raju as the founding CEOs and MDs. It began with 50 employees in Chennai 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.

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, headquartered in Chennai, India. Three months later, in 1997, DBSS renamed itself Cognizant Technology Solutions. In July 1997, Dun & Bradstreet bought Satyam 's 24% stake in DBSS for $3.4 million. Headquarters were moved to the United States, and in March 1998, Kumar Mahadeva was named CEO. Operating as a division of the Cognizant Corporation, the company focused on Y2K-related projects and web development. In 1998, the parent company, Cognizant Corporation, split into two companies: IMS Health and Nielsen Media Research. 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.

In 2003, IMS Health sold its entire 56% stake in Cognizant, which instituted a poison pill provision to prevent hostile takeover attempts. Kumar Mahadeva resigned as the CEO in 2003, and was replaced by Lakshmi Narayanan. 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. In September 2014, Cognizant acquired healthcare IT services provider TriZetto Corp for $2.7 billion. Cognizant shares rose nearly 3 percent in pre-market trading. On 24 June 2015, the company signed a multimillion-dollar agreement with Escorts Group in India to help Escorts' businesses in digital transformation and modernize its operations across all business segments. 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.

On 1 April 2019, Francisco D'Souza was replaced by Brian Humphries as the CEO. In January 2022, Cognizant sold its acquisition Oy Samlink to Kyndryl and Mustache to DJE Holdings. In 2023, Ravi Kumar S was named as CEO of Cognizant. On 22 April 2024, Cognizant announced its partnership with Microsoft Corporation to extend its reach of Generative AI and Copilots, also to enhance experiences of employee and speed up their cross-industry innovation.