Cognizant acquires US digital marketing firm Cadient Group

India's second-largest IT exporter Cognizant announced a small acquisition on Tuesday, one that would boost its digital marketing services for life sciences customers.

The company said it is acquiring Cadient Group, a digital marketing agency based out of Pennsylvania, for one and half times its revenue - Cadient has a top line of $20 million. Cognizant said Cadient is profitable but did not disclose its operating margins.

The acquisition comes in the backdrop of a shift in the tech spending landscape. The lines between business and IT are blurring in many corporations.

Chief Information Officers (CIOs), the traditional buyers of IT services, are becoming much less powerful with the centre of gravity in terms of decision making shifting to the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and the Chief Marketing Officer's (CMO) office. In 2012, advisory firm Gartner said that, by 2017, CMOs will spend more on IT than CIOs. Cadient aims at the CMOs' budget.

Cognizant called the purchase a "tuck-in" acquisition - one that is small and easy to integrate. Pharmaceutical, biotechnology, consumer health, and medical device companies all need digital strategies today to connect with both patients and health-care providers.

The acquisition fits in here. As part of the buy, more than 100 digital specialists with expertise in brand strategy and planning, content development, user-centred design, multi-channel analytics, and digital, social and mobile marketing, will join Cognizant.

Cadient is Cognizant's second acquisition in less than a month.

In September, the company announced it is acquiring US-based TriZetto Corporation for $2.7 billion in cash. TriZetto provides health-care IT solutions. The purchase will eventually add more muscle to Cognizant's $2.5 billion health-care business.