HCL Technologies Limited (d/b/a HCLTech) is an Indian multinational information technology (IT) consulting company headquartered in Noida. Founded by Shiv Nadar, it was spun out in 1991 when HCL entered into the software services business. The company has offices in 60 countries[6] and over 220,000 employees.[7] It is the third-largest India-headquartered IT services company by revenue and market capitalization as of 2024.[8][9]
In 1976, a group of eight engineers, all former employees of Delhi Cloth & General Mills, led by Shiv Nadar, started a company that would make personal computers.[10] Initially floated as Microcomp Limited, Nadar and his team (which also included Arjun Malhotra, Ajai Chowdhry, D.S. Puri, Yogesh Vaidya and Subhash Arora) started selling teledigital calculators to gather capital for their main product. On 11 August 1976, the company was renamed Hindustan Computers Limited (HCL).[11] HCL Enterprise developed an indigenous microcomputer in 1978,[12] and an RDBMS, networking OS and client-server architecture in 1983.[13] HCL Technologies began as the R&D division of HCL Enterprise.[13]
The company originally was focused on hardware but, via HCL Technologies, software and services became the main focus.[14][15] On 12 November 1991, HCL Technologies was spun off as a separate unit,[16] being incorporated as HCL Overseas Limited, a provider of software and technology development services.[17]
In 1993, HCL also started providing enterprise IT infrastructure management services, winning an order to establish India's first floorless, electronic stock exchange for NSE.[17][18]
In July 1994, the company name was changed to HCL Consulting Limited.[17] On 6 October 1999, the company was renamed 'HCL Technologies Limited' for "a better reflection of its activities."[17]
Between 1991 and 1999, the company expanded its software development capacities to US, European and APAC markets.[17]
HCL went public on 11 January 2000,[19][20] with an issue of 14.2 million shares.[17] By the early-2000s, its wholly owned subsidiary HCL Comnet had expanded its offerings from VSAT to include network security and IT infrastructure services.[21]
In 2001, HCL formed a joint venture with Deutsche Bank by acquiring a 51% stake in the latter's Indian subsidiary Deutsche Software (later renamed DSL Software).[22] In 2004, HCL bought out the remaining 49% stake in DSL Software, which then became part of HCL's banking technology division.[23]
In 2003, HCL won a contract to develop embedded software for Airbus A340's flight warning system.[24] That same year, HCL sold its entire stake in HCL Perot Systems, a seven-year old IT services company, to joint venture partner Perot Systems for over $105 million.[25]
In 2005, HCL expanded its operations in Northern Ireland. At the 2006 UK Trade and Investment India Business Awards in New Delhi, the then UK Prime Minister Tony Blair announced the expansion.[26]
In 2008, HCL acquired the UK-based consultancy Axon Group for £440 million and merged HCL's enterprise application services (EAS) division into Axon. In the three years following the acquisition, the EAS division's revenue share within HCL increased from 9% to 22%.[27]
In October 2017, IBM and HCL announced a strategic partnership, with the latter taking over the development of IBM Lotus Software's Notes, Domino, Sametime and Verse collaboration tools.[28]
In 2018, US-based Actian was acquired by HCL and Sumeru Equity Partners for $330 million.[29] HCL America acquired the remaining 19.6% stake in Actian for $100.2 million in 2021,[30] making Actian the data & analytics division of HCLSoftware, but keeping it an independent company.[31]
In 2019, HCL Technologies acquired products of IBM including AppScan, BigFix, Commerce, Connections, Digital Experience (Portal and Content Manager), Notes/Domino, and Unica.[32]
In 2021, the company reached $10 billion in revenue.[33] In 2022, HCL Technologies rebranded as HCLTech.[34]
In 2023, HCLTech acquired ASAP Group, a German automotive engineering company for $279 million.[35] In August 2023, HCLTech signed a $2.1 billion managed network services deal with Verizon Business.[36][37] In May 2024, HCLTech announced the acquisition of select assets of Communications Technology Group, a business division of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), for $225 million.[38]
Acquisition date Company Business Country Ref. 29 October 2001 Apollo Contact Centre Business process outsourcing United Kingdom [39] 3 June 2002 Gulf Computers Inc. Application development United States [17] 20 September 2004 DSL Software Banking software India [23] 13 October 2004 Shipara Technologies Product engineering and embedded systems India [40] 17 February 2005 Aquila Technologies Engineering software India [41] 20 February 2008 Capital Stream Inc. Business process automation United States [42] 16 July 2008 Liberata Financial Service Business process outsourcing United Kingdom [43] 25 August 2008 Control Point Solutions, Inc. Telecommunications service United States [44] 15 December 2008 Axon Group SAP consulting United Kingdom [45] 16 July 2009 UCS Group's SAP division SAP consulting South Africa [46] 19 October 2015 Concept to Silicon Systems (C2SiS) Semiconductors India [47] 20 October 2015 Volvo's external IT division IT services Sweden [48] 29 October 2015 PowerObjects CRM consulting United States [49] 2 April 2016 Geometric Ltd PLM and engineering services India [50] 21 October 2016 Butler America Aerospace Engineering and design services United States [51] 25 April 2017 Urban Fulfillment Services, LLC Business process outsourcing United States [52] 5 September 2017 ETL Factory Limited (Datawave) Automation United Kingdom [53] 12 April 2018 Actian Data analytics United States [29] 27 June 2018 H&D International Group IT and engineering services Germany [54] 13 March 2019 Strong-Bridge Envision IT consulting United States [55] 9 September 2019 Sankalp Semiconductor Technology design services India [56] 21 September 2020 DWS Ltd IT services Australia [57] 14 January 2022 Starschema Data services Hungary/United States [58] 9 May 2022 Confinale AG Digital banking and wealth management consulting Switzerland [59] 9 May 2022 Quest Informatics Industry 4.0 and internet of things India [60] 13 July 2023 ASAP Group Automotive engineering services Germany [61] 23 May 2024 HPE's CTG division Telco solutions United States [38] 9 August 2024 Zeenea Data management and analytics France [62]HCLTech operates in 60 countries and has more than 200 delivery centers and 150 innovation labs.[63] Its headquarters are in Noida, India. The company serves include Digital, Engineering, Cloud, AI and Software.[64] HCLTech business is divided into three segments: IT and Business Services (ITBS), Engineering and R&D Services (ERS), and HCLSoftware.[65]
In 2019, HCL Technologies started a software product division called HCLSoftware, after completing the acquisition of IBM's software tools.[66] Notable products under HCLSoftware include HCL AppScan, HCL BigFix, HCL Connections, HCL Commerce Cloud, HCL Digital Experience, HCL Sametime, HCL Notes, iNotes, and Unica. As for Actian, their data & analytics division, notable products include HCL Informix, Actian Data Platform, Actian Ingres, Actian Zen, Actian NoSQL and Zeenea.[67] HCLSoftware division had revenue of ₹11,692 crore (US$1.4 billion) in fiscal year 2023-24.[7]
As of March 31, 2024, HCLTech had over 227,000 employees worldwide, representing 161 nationalities.[63]
HCLTech has had four CEOs since its inception:
CEO Tenure Shiv Nadar 1976-2007 Vineet Nayar[68] 2007-2013 Anant Gupta[69] 2013-2016 C Vijayakumar[4] 2016-presentHCLTech is the flagship company of the HCL Group.[70] Another HCL Group company, HCL Infosystems, was formed in 1976 to produce calculators.[71] HCL Infosystems later became one of the leading manufacturers of personal computers and laptops in India, but it eventually lost market share to foreign competitors like HP and Dell, and shut down its manufacturing division.[72]
In February 2014, HCL Group launched HCL Healthcare, which provides corporate health services.[73] HCL TalentCare is the fourth venture of HCL Group, which provided skilling and staffing services.[74]
HCLFoundation is the CSR arm of HCL Technologies in India.[75] As of March 2024, it has invested around ₹1,400 crores (US$170 million) in social and environmental programs. Its initiatives include the HCLTech Grant.[76]
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