NIIT acquires DEI; third takeover in a year

Mumbai: NIIT, a leading global IT solutions provider, has announced its third acquisition of the year by taking over Data Executives International (DEI), a privately-held company with its headquarters in Pennsylvania.

DEI, founded in 1984, leverages its unique combination of insurance and financial services expertise to provide business solutions to leading companies in the insurance and finance sector.

"NIIT Technologies has invested steadily in building its insurance and finance services practice. This acquisition is another key step in bringing high-end domain expertise to the practice as well as in providing access to the whos who in the insurance domain," says NIIR CEO Vijay Thadani.

This acquisition will enable NIIT to become a stronger player in the $75-billion IT services market for the finance and insurance sectors with capabilities ranging from high-end strategic consulting services to complete IT solutions. The acquisition adds to NIIT a very high-calibre management team and an experienced consulting team of over 15 professionals. DEI will become a division of NIIT in the US with Charles T Schaefer as its president and Bruce Torok as its vice-president.

"We are very glad to have Charlie and Bruce on our team," says NIIT Technologies president Arvind Thakur. "Charlie, a Rutgers graduate, is a seasoned financial services industry executive with over 16 years of experience at EDS. He is also a chartered financial consultant, a chartered property casualty underwriter, and a chartered life underwriter. Bruce co-founded DEI in 1984 after several years at EDS and Philadelphia Life Insurance. We look forward to their leadership in building DEI into a large and successful insurance industry practice for NIIT Technologies."

"DEI is a well-respected name in the insurance and securities space with clients such as AIG, ING, Jefferson Pilot, Mass Mutual, Schinnerer, Lutheran Brotherhood, AON, AMEX and GEFA. It has been very closely supporting the technology initiatives of these companies for several years by providing domain specific solutions," says NIIT president (strategic alliances) C N Madhusudan.

"Finance and insurance are core verticals for NIIT Technologies and our acquisition of DEI is a very significant step in enhancing our domain competencies in these areas," he adds.