BANGALORE, India & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Wipro Digital today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Cooper, an award-winning design and business strategy consultancy. Wipro Digital is the digital business unit of Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO), a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company. Cooper will become part of Designit, Wipro Digital’s strategic design arm, further strengthening its design and innovation capabilities, expanding its reach in North America and adding capabilities in professional design education.

Increasingly, global enterprise clients recognize that design is a critical part of any digital or business transformation. By adding Cooper’s skills and expertise, Wipro will be better positioned to support its clients’ digital programs.

“Our combined capability across design, strategy and technology gives us a unique platform for working side-by-side with clients on the entirety of their digital initiatives. With Cooper, an acknowledged leader and pioneer in the design community with roots on the East and West coasts, we will now be the preeminent firm for world-class UX (User Experience) and interaction design. This coupled with Designit’s global strategic design services and our world-class engineering capability, will allow us to support the complete digital journey for our clients, helping them transform their businesses for the future,” said Rajan Kohli, Global Head and Senior Vice President, Wipro Digital. Wipro Digital and Designit serve clients from 16 offices around the world.

Headquartered in San Francisco, Cooper has been a leading brand in interaction design, UX and professional design education for more than 25 years. Founded by Sue Cooper and Alan Cooper, the “Father of Visual Basic,” the consultancy is credited with inventing many tools and approaches used in design, including the Goal-Directed Design method and personas as a practical interaction design tool. Cooper employs 35 people in offices in San Francisco and New York and provides consulting and training services to top brands including Fortune 500 companies, leading non-profits and government agencies.

“Designit and Cooper are a perfect match. Both companies are passionate about creating products, experiences and systems that matter and are high-impact and strategic. As a combined force with Wipro, we’ll take our clients to new places, and help them think like a startup again,” said Mikal Hallstrup, Designit's Founder and Global CEO.

“Designit and Cooper share a strikingly similar culture and a shared passion for turning complex problems into solutions people love. Both companies are characterized by unparalleled craftsmanship, real-world practicality and a humanizing approach to technology. As a combined force, we will continue to shape the future of business,” said Alan Cooper, Co-Founder of Cooper.

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to be closed in the third quarter of fiscal 2017-18.

About Wipro Limited

Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO) is a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company. We harness the power of cognitive computing, hyper-automation, robotics, cloud, analytics and emerging technologies to help our clients adapt to the digital world and make them successful. A company recognized globally for its comprehensive portfolio of services, strong commitment to sustainability and good corporate citizenship, we have over 160,000 dedicated employees serving clients across six continents. Together, we discover ideas and connect the dots to build a better and a bold new future.

About Wipro Digital

Wipro Digital, the digital business unit of Wipro, collaborates and iterates with clients to deliver customer-centered digital transformation. Working at the intersection of strategy, design and technology, we derive insight, shape interaction, drive integration and unlock innovation for our clients. We apply Customer Journey Engineering to create extraordinary experiences for global brands, businesses and their customers at scale. Learn more at wiprodigital.com or @WiproDigital.

About Designit

Designit is a global strategic design firm, part of the leading technology company Wipro. We match big-picture thinking with creativity and technology to drive change and growth across businesses, industries and societies. We are here to make a human-shaped world, where everything is designed around real human needs. With a team of 500+ designers, researchers and business designers across 14 offices worldwide, we make products, services and experiences that improve the way we all live, work and do business.

About Cooper

Cooper is a leading consulting firm and training center founded by Alan Cooper, the Father of Visual Basic. Cooper applies design thinking techniques – many of which they invented – to create innovative products, services and organizations. For 25+ years, Cooper has worked with thousands of top clients in virtually every industry and vertical.

Forward-looking and Cautionary Statements

Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in our earnings, revenue and profits, our ability to generate and manage growth, intense competition in IT services, our ability to maintain our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which we make strategic investments, withdrawal of fiscal governmental incentives, political instability, war, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, unauthorized use of our intellectual property, and general economic conditions affecting our business and industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. We may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by us or on our behalf.

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