Wipro Digital acquires business strategy consultant Cooper to boost North America play

Wipro Digital, the digital business arm of Wipro, will buy design and business strategy consultancy Cooper, the company said in a statement. Cooper will become part of Wipro Digital’s strategic design arm Designit, and add to its design and innovation capabilities, expanding its reach in North America and adding capabilities in professional design education.

“With Cooper, an acknowledged leader and pioneer in the design community with roots on the East and West coast, 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.

The IT services company did not disclose the terms or value of the deal.

The San Francisco-based Cooper was founded by Sue Cooper and Alan Cooper, the  Father of programming language 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.

Wipro bought Designit, a strategic design firm in 2015, and the combined entity serves clients from 16 offices around the world.