Ness Technologies
Private | |
Industry | Software services |
Fate | Acquired by Citi Venture Capital International (2011) |
Founded | 1999 |
Services |
IT Consulting IT Services Outsourcing |
Revenue | US$ 547 million(Plus) (2009) |
Number of employees | Over 7800 (As on 31st Dec, 2009)[1] |
Website | NESS.com |
Ness Technologies ( Hebrew: נס טכנולוגיות) is an Israel-based provider of IT services.
Overview
Ness Technologies provides information technology and business planning services in North America, Europe, the Middle-East, and the Asia Pacific. It operates in three sectors: software engineering, technology and integration (Ness CEE). And advanced solutions for defense and homeland security (Ness TSG).
History
Origins
The origins of Ness Technologies can be traced to TEKEM, one of the first software houses in Israel, which was co-founded in 1969 by Dr. Yossi Vardi, Meir Burstein and Yoram Rosenfeld. The name of the company came from its Hebrew initials, which stand for Advanced Technology (it was known in English as Advanced Technology Limited, or ATL). TEKEM's first major project was for the Israeli Air Force in cooperation with Hughes Aircraft Company, which also bought a share of the company. In the 1970s, the company was acquired by the Tadiran conglomerate and grew to become Israel's leading software house.[2]
Founding Ness
Between 1997 and 1999 the Wolfson family, New York based real estate investors, acquired six Israeli IT companies, of which TEKEM was the largest. Following completion of these acquisitions, all the acquired companies were consolidated into a single operating structure, within Ness Technologies a new company that was incorporated in Delaware in March 1999.[3] Shortly afterword, Warburg Pincus an American private equity firm bought 20% of the company.[4]
Global expansion and IPO on NASDAQ
By 2001, Ness became Israel's largest IT services company, and embarked on a global expansion strategy; the following acquisitions were made as part of that strategy:
- In November 2001, Ness acquired Blueflame Inc., a company founded in 1985, and it had 120 employees and annual revenues of approximately $18 million at the time of its acquisition.[5]
- In September 2002, Ness acquired APP Group CEE B.V., a privately held IT services firm operating in the Czech Republic and Slovakia specializing in CRM, ERP, EAI, enterprise asset management and e-commerce solutions.[6]
- In June 2003, Ness acquired APAR Infotech, a privately held U.S./Indian IT services company, founded in 1998 and providing a wide range of ERP, CRM and EAI software services to the financial services, manufacturing, telecom, retail sales and logistics sectors. In addition to Apar's U.S. headquarters, Apar had operations in the United Kingdom, India and Singapore, and offices in Canada, Australia, Japan and Malaysia. At the time of its acquisition, effective in June 2003, it had approximately 1,200 employees.[7]
In September 2004, Ness Technologies became a public company following an initial public offering on the Nasdaq.[4]
In 2011 Ness was acquired by Citi Venture Capital International for US$307 million and delisted from NASDAQ[8]
Ranking and awards
Ness Technologies has been ranked as one of the top ten global IT outsourcing vendors by Brown-Wilson Group. In addition, Ness Technologies was included on the 2007 Top 50 Best Managed Global Outsourcing Vendors list. In 2009, Ness was named in the FinTech 100 ranking of top global technology providers to the financial services industry. Ness has been on the list for three consecutive years.[9] Ness has 7,800 employees and maintains operations in 18 countries.[10] Its clients include Google, IBM, Cisco, Lockheed Martin, the Israel Police, Pfizer, Visa, Automatic Data Processing, Ebay, Pearson Education, De Beers, Long & Foster Amadeus IT Group and Vysya.[11]
Notable Projects
Leumitrade Israel
In 2003, Ness Technologies was chosen to build a stock market trading site for Bank Leumi. "Bashan," as the project was called, suffered many setbacks and delays, but the site was launched in 2005.[12] The site won many prizes, including 2 consecutive WebiAwards for the best site in Israel.[13]
dbMotion
In 2004 Ness established dbMotion as a spin-off of its business intelligence solutions unit, which began to develop healthcare software solutions in 2000. In 2007, Ness Technologies announced the sale of its ownership interest in dbMotion.[14]
See also
References
- ↑ http://www.ness.com/Global/Company/Pages/Company-Profile.aspx
- ↑ Yossi Vardi - Profile - Business Insider
- ↑ Ness Technologgies Annual Report 2005 (Form 10-k)
- 1 2 Konfortas, Yehuda (August 1, 2005). "Ness Technologies Targets Global Growth The leading IT-services company in Israel looks worldwide for growth opportunities.". InformationWeek.
- ↑ Ness Technologies buys BlueFlame for $5 mln Globes - 4 Nov 2001
- ↑ Ness paying $16m for Czech company APP Group, The Marker, 24 Sep 2002
- ↑ Israel's Ness buys APAR Infotech for $78 M , Silicon India, 14 May 2003
- ↑ "Ness Technologies merger completed". Globes. 16 October 2011. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
- ↑ Ness Technologies Named to FinTech 100 List for Third Consecutive Year
- ↑ Ness to fine fuel-guzzling staff, Haaretz
- ↑ Silicon India
- ↑ Eliav Gnessin's homepage [heb], 2009
- ↑ "Leumi Wins Awards", PR Leumi, 2009
- ↑ "Ness Technologies Announces Sale of its Ownership Interest in dbMotion", PR Newswire, Jan 2007