Cognizant Acquires Itaas to Add Digital Video Streaming Technology to its Portfolio

Outsourcing giant Cognizant has bought US digital solutions company Itaas to add video streaming technologies to its service portfolio.  Atlanta, Georgia-based Itaas helps broadcasters, particularly cable channels, to deliver live streaming and video services on digital platforms.

Itaas’ technology solutions can benefit Cognizant in offering new services to clients in banking, retail, and healthcare segments, which are rolling out advanced customer and business platforms centered on video.

The acquisition is another example of outsourcing firms trying to blend multiple services into offerings, as new technologies like virtualization, cloud computing, and smart analytics automate many of the IT tasks they traditionally handled with thousands of employees in offshore locations.

Founded in 1999, Itaas has approximately 200 professionals in the U.S., Canada and India. It owns R&D facilities and laboratories for product development in the latter two countries.

Itaas technology, according to reports, also enables deliverance of digital video services across telecommunications network environments and on consumer devices such as tablets and smartphones. As more viewers look to access internet video content directly via TV, digital device companies are focusing on bundling content with connected devices.

Congizant, India’s second biggest IT outsourcing firm, has said that Itaas’ digital video engineering and multi-platform capabilities complement its existing capabilities.

“This acquisition continues our long-standing strategy of acquiring sharply focused business capabilities that complement our existing offerings,” said Rajeev Mehta, Chief Executive Officer of IT Services at Cognizant. “This acquisition strengthens our ability to help enterprises challenge the status quo, and create new business models in response to market shifts and competitive pressures in their industry segments.”