Cork life sciences software company Zenith Technologies is being bought by US firm Cognizant for an undisclosed sum.
Zenith Technologies specialises in implementing digital technologies to manage, control and optimise drug and medical device production.
Founded by Brendan O’Regan in 1998, Zenith Technologies operates on five continents, with 16 locations around the globe. The Ringaskiddy-headquartered firm employs around 800 staff globally, including 300 in Ireland.
Nine of the world’s 10 largest biopharmaceutical manufacturers utilise Zenith’s manufacturing lifecycle software systems and supports.
Zenith’s turnover in 2018 was more than €85m and it booked a net profit of €8m. Year-end net worth was €28.6m and the firm said that it expected revenue to hit €100m in 2019.
In Association with
Some 70% of Zenith’s shares prior to Cognizant’s acquisition were owned by an unlimited company called Zentek Engineering, in which O’Regan is the controlling party. The remaining 30% share was owned by General Electric, who bought into Zenith in 2017.
Zenith Technologies beat the likes of Pfizer to win Cork Chamber’s ‘Company of the Year’ title in the corporate category this year. The Cork Chamber jury panel may have been impressed by Zenith’s 2017 accounts filing, when directors emoluments increased to €6.4m from €2.7m the year before. The accounts speak of a €5.7m ‘sales success bonus’ related to the 30% investment by GE in the company during that year. For 2018, five directors shared €3.4m on salary and pension payments.
New owner Cognizant is headquartered in New Jersey and provides a range of IT services, including digital, technology, consulting and operations services. The multinational firm reported revenue of $16bn in 2018 and recently acquired another Irish company, the Dublin-based financial services software firm Meritsoft.
“In acquiring Zenith Technologies, we expand Cognizant’s IoT portfolio and extend our life sciences domain expertise by becoming a single-source provider of end-to-end smart factory capabilities,” said Brian Humphries, Cognizant’s CEO.
Joe Haugh, CEO of Zenith Technologies, said that it is an exciting time for the business. “Our combined business will drive process excellence through tighter integration of manufacturing processes and systems, the efficient harnessing of information and analytics across the manufacturing value chain, and the adoption of IoT technologies delivering manufacturing 4.0,” he added.
The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of 2019.
Photo: Brendan O'Regan (left), with Vodafone's Debbie Power and Cork Chamber president Bill O'Connell at the Cork Chamber Company of the Year Awards (Pic: John Sheehan)
