Cognizant is an American multinational corporation that provides IT services, including digital, technology, consulting, and operations services. It is headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey, United States. Cognizant is included in the NASDAQ-100 and the S&P 500 indices. It is also one of the fastest growing Fortune 500 companies. It was founded as an in-house technology unit of Dun & Bradstreet in 1994, and started serving external clients in 1996.After a series of corporate splits and restructures of its parent companies there was an initial public offering in 1998. Following the Y2K and dot-com boom of the late 1990s, when companies sharpened their focus on hard business parameters such as revenues and profits, the company grew by delivering critical application development and maintenance services.
Cognizant had a period of fast growth during the 2000s, becoming a Fortune 500 company in 2011. In 2015, the Fortune magazine named it as the world's fourth most admired IT services company. In 2017, Cognizant was named in Fortune's Future 50 list.