Main Highlights
- Mphasis, an IT services provider, announced the acquisition of Blink, a company located in the United States, for up to $94 million
- Blink has other studios in Austin, Boston, San Diego, and San Francisco, employing over 130 people
- According to the company, the purchase would offer access to marquee logos, improve the experience business, and be leadership and revenue growth accretive
- Blink CEO Karen Clark Cole stated that the company’s aim is to create products that people use, love, and remember
Mphasis, an IT services provider, announced the acquisition of Blink, a company located in the United States, for up to $94 million on Wednesday (about Rs 694.3 crore). Blink, based in Seattle, was founded in 2000 and provides design consultation services for major brands in the areas of user experience (UX), user research-based software product design and strategy, and customer experience (CX).
Blink has other studios in Austin, Boston, San Diego, and San Francisco, employing over 130 people. According to a regulatory filing, “the acquisition closed on September 21, 2021 (PST) as a result of the signing of the definitive agreement in nature of agreement for Plan of Merger between Mphasis Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company; a subsidiary of Mphasis Corporation; and Blink Interactive Inc.”
How will Mphasis utilize the funds?
The total price for the deal, including earnouts, is up to $94 million, according to the company. According to the company, the purchase would offer access to marquee logos, improve the experience business, and be leadership and revenue growth accretive.
Mphasis Limited is a Bangalore-based IT services firm. The firm offers infrastructure technology and application outsourcing services, as well as architecture consultation, application development and integration, and application administration. It caters to the financial services, telecommunications, logistics, and technology businesses.
Mphasis was ranked #7 in India IT businesses and #189 overall in the 2019 Fortune India 500. Hewlett Packard Enterprise sold the bulk of its investment in Mphasis to Blackstone Group LP in April 2016 for about $1 billion. It delivers information technology services to clients across the world. Mphasis delivers integrated solutions that encompass BPO, infrastructure technologies, and application services. The company’s application services encompass application development as well as application maintenance and support.
Financial services, insurance, healthcare, manufacturing, government, transportation, communications, and consumer and retail industries are among the areas covered by the firm. Financial services, insurance, healthcare, manufacturing, government, transportation, communications, and consumer and retail industries are among the areas covered by the firm.
Blink, based in Seattle, was founded in 2000 and is a User Experience research, strategy, and design business that works with marquee companies to develop transformational digital products, brands, and experiences. Blink has other studios in Austin, Boston, San Diego, and San Francisco, employing over 130 people.
Blink developed steadily over several years before exploding. Large businesses have recently been knocking on the door, expressing interest in acquiring Blink. Instead, Cole told GeekWire last year, the company started a strategy to acquire smaller firms in order to become the largest UX business in the world.
Customer centricity is fundamental to Mphasis, according to CEO and Executive Director Nitin Rakesh, and is represented in the company’s Front2Back Transformation strategy. “The purchase of Blink, in line with our M&A strategy, places us at the forefront of offering well-researched design and high-impact digital experiences to our clients and their end customers,” he said.
According to him, the Total Addressable Market (TAM) for upstream user research, strategy, and design is increasing at a pace of 25-30% per year, which is 4-5x the entire IT services market.
In today’s context, there is a far greater emphasis on customer/user-focused design. Rakesh explained that the synergy opportunity set would focus upon the product, experience, and service design, as well as end-to-end implementation services across the range of customers and sectors we serve together.
Blink’s Aim
Blink CEO Karen Clark Cole stated that the company’s aim is to create products that people use, love, and remember. “We are thrilled to have Mphasis’ engineering talents as part of our core, delivering end-to-end services for our clients and seeing our ideas through to launch,” Cole said.
