Global IT services and consulting giant Cognizant has acquired Lev, a privately-held digital marketing consultancy firm and Salesforce partner, for an undisclosed amount.
This M&A deal 158 that ChannelE2E has covered so far in 2020, though the pace of deals has slowed considerably since the coronavirus pandemic emerged. See the complete M&A deal list here.
The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2020. The seller will be branded as Lev, a Cognizant Company.
Cognizant Acquires Lev: Details and Executive Perspectives
Lev, founded in 2006 as Levementum, has approximately 200 employees. The company pivoted around April 2018. At the time, Levementum sold off its SugarCRM consulting practice; doubled down on its Salesforce Platinum Consulting Partner Status; and raised $4 million from Inoca Capital Partners, a private equity firm.
Fast forward to present day. Lev, based in Indianapolis, Indiana, provides Salesforce-centric strategic consulting, architecture design, technical optimization, and application integration services. Lev’s clientele include healthcare, life sciences, entertainment, technology, utilities, financial services, and education, among others.
Commenting on the deal, Greg Hyttenrauch, president of Digital Systems and Technology at Cognizant, said:
"In this unprecedented time of uncertainty, we remain committed to our client and partner-focused strategy, investing in capabilities that help clients become fully digital, data-enabled, customer-centric organizations. We continue to significantly invest in cloud as one of our strategic priorities. Lev is Cognizant's third cloud-related acquisition announced in 2020. It will expand Cognizant's consulting capabilities to help marketers implement Marketing Cloud, personalize customer connections and, in turn, generate better leads. Coupling this with our deep Salesforce quote-to-cash expertise, we will enable clients to effectively use the cloud to transform their critical lead-to-cash processes."
Added Lev CEO Michael Burton:
"Marketers face ever-increasing expectations to take their campaigns to the next level and drive even more value. Lev provides the strategic consulting and technical expertise for Marketing Cloud that enables marketers to create deeper connections with their customers and deliver strong ROI. We are thrilled to be joining Cognizant with their rich expertise in data, cloud, and Salesforce solutions. Together, we will be able to address a broader array of business and technology challenges for our clients."
Cognizant’s Acquisition Extravaganza
This deal marks Cognizant’s third since the new year, but the company has been snapping up firms for some time. Many of its recent deals have been focused on the Salesfoce ecosystem. Among the deals ChannelE2E has tracked:
- EI-Technologies a France-based Salesforce specialist and privately-held digital technology consulting firm.
- Code Zero Consulting, another Salesforce-centric consulting firm.
- Contino, an Amazon Web Services cloud consulting firm that also works closely with Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform.
- Acquiring Zenith Technologies, a privately-held life sciences company from Cork, Ireland.
Salesforce Partner Mergers and Acquisitions
M&A activity among Salesforce partners has been strong in recent years. Here's a list of Salesforce partner M&A deals that we've tracked.
