Cognizant to acquire US engg company Belcan for $1.3 billion

With an eye on accelerating revenue growth in a tough environment, IT major Cognizant Technology Solutions has signed an agreement to acquire US-based Belcan LLC, a global supplier of Engineering Research & Development (ER&D) services at a purchase price of around $1.3 billion in cash and stock. This is Cognizant’s second big acquisition in the last six months as it acquired Thirdera, a ServiceNow advisory platform, in January. With this, Cognizant also makes its first large foray in the aerospace and defence sector and joins other IT service majors in ramping up ER&D capabilities.