tech story

Meta – A Company That Has Got Half The Population Scrolling Down Their Mobile Phones.

Meta is most commonly known as Facebook Inc as it hasn’t been a year since the company was rebranded. It is one of the world’s largest technology companies apart from Google, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft. By the end of 2021, Mark Zuckerberg announced the change of the name to Meta as it also reflects the focus of the company to building the metaverse. Facebook Inc (now Meta) was founded in 2004, and it is the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, and many other subsidiaries. So, the company is mostly dominating the entire social media industry in most parts of the globe apart from countries where it is blocked.

About Meta

The brains behind founding Meta are Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. Meta’s headquarters are located in Menlo Park, California, US and there are more than 70,000 employees working for the company from various parts of the world. Apart from billions of active users of social media, Meta earns a good portion of its revenue from advertisement postings. One of the early and largest acquisitions by Meta was in 2012 when it bought Instagram. Meta has also acquired companies like Giphy, Mapillary, Oculus, and owns a 9.99% stake in Jio Platforms.

History of Facebook

Facebook was launched during a time when the internet eventually became famous and it was coming closer to common people in terms of availability. A social media platform for chatting, posting pictures, etc sounded very new and thus exciting, especially for the younger population. In 2012, when Mark Zuckerberg decided to file an IPO, the Facebook platform was already receiving billions of likes and comments. After Facebook becomes public, Zuckerberg was to retain 22% ownership of the company and 57% of the voting shares. So, when Facebook became a public company it was valued at $104 billion. The IPO raised for Facebook was one of the largest in the history of the US economy.

But, a massive company like Facebook that had to increase the number of shares offered due to high public demand, caught everyone’s attention. So, the regulators from Wall Street decided to investigate if there has been any leaking of information to selected clients rather than the general public. There were several accusations leading to the filing of several lawsuits some retail investors losing millions over this fury. Facebook became a part of the S&P 500 index in 2013. In 2014, the company decided to change its motto to “Move fast with stable infrastructure” from “Move fast and break things.”

Acquisitions

Facebook has acquired several companies which the company calls “talent acquisitions”. After acquiring Instagram which was one of the first acquisitions of the company, it acquired Onavo, an Israeli company in 2013. In 2014, Facebook showed its interest in buying Whatsapp for $19 billion and later that year also acquired Oculus VR for $2.3 billion. Facebook wanted to create its own stable coin cryptocurrency hence it founded Libra Networks in 2019. Meta has also mentioned that Libra is backed up by companies like Visa, PayPal, Uber, and Mastercard. In 2019, Meta acquired the game developer Beat Games and then next year announced about the 10 percent (approximate) stake acquisition of Jio Platforms, digital media of Reliance Industries. In 2020, Meta also announced the acquisition of Giphy for $400 million.

About Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg is one of the most famous tech entrepreneurs across the globe. He started writing software from an early age (when he was in middle school) and his dad also taught him basic programming. Zuckerberg went to Harvard and he was already famous as a programming prodigy. He started writing the code for a website early in 2004 and after one month he launched the website, “Thefacebook.” Eventually, he dropped out of college to carry on with his project. In 2017, he received an honorary degree from Harvard. Zuckerberg is currently the CEO of Meta Platforms.

Annasha

Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more

Wipro – India’s One Of The Largest Multinational Conglomerates Founded During The British Period.

Wipro, founded in 1945, is one of the largest employers in India. It is a multinational company that was featured in Forbes Global 2000 list as well as Fortune India 500 list. It has more than 230,000 employees and has customers around the globe. Only one year after establishing the company, it was taken public in 1946 and was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange of India. Azim Premji, an Indian businessman, and engineer is the main brain behind the company. The current CEO of the company is Thierry Delaporte.

About Wipro

Wipro, though started out as a company for manufacturing vegetable and refined oil, has expanded to many other sectors in the last seven decades. It has launched health care, personal care, lightning products, etc, and offers services such as consulting and outsourcing. Wipro has also been a recipient of many prestigious awards and honors. In 2010, Wipro was given the Microsoft Country Partner of the Year Award for India. After a couple of years, it also ranked 2nd in the list of Global 500 Green companies by Newsweek. Subsidiaries of Wipro are Appirio, Topcoder, Capco, and Designit.

Founding Days

Mohamed Premji incorporated Wipro in Alamner, India as Western Inia Products. Later, the company’s name was abbreviated to Wipro. The company initially became a manufacturer of various kinds of cooking and edible oil under the trade names of Kisan, Camel, and Sunflower. The company was slowly growing and it was in 1966 that Mohamed Premji passed away giving the reigns to his son, Azim Premji. He became the Chairman of the company only at the age of 21. It was under Azim Premji’s leadership and guidance that took Wipro into the IT industry, for what it is famous today. It was during the 1970s that Company gradually started finding opportunities in the IT and computing industry. So, in 1977 the company’s name was changed from Western India Vegetables Products Limited to Wipro Products Limited.

After the IT industry, Wipro also expanded its product line by introducing beauty products, hydraulic cylinders, and industrial cylinders. In 1989, the company started a partnership with General Electric for expanding into the healthcare sector by manufacturing diagnostic and imaging products. The company also launched its fluid power division and toiletries product line for babies. In 1995, the company also set up an overseas design center for international clients. By the end of the decade, the company acquired Wipro Acer and introduced new products like Wipro SuperGenius personal computers. The company also started offering internet services in India after starting a joint venture with a Dutch company. In 2000, Company got listed on New York Stock Exchange.

Expansion and Success

The next decade started with a huge success as Wipro became the first software company in India to be ISO 14001 certified. Wipro started a new product line of CFL under the brand name Wipro Smartlite. The company also partnered with Intel for i-Siksha. Wipro also started acquiring several companies starting with cMango Inc in 2006, Oki Techno Centre Singapore Pte Ltd (OTCS) in 2007, and establishing an R&D partnership with Nokia Siemens Network.

In 2008, the company entered into the clean energy business and acquired the global oil and gas division of SAIC. Some of the other companies that Wipro acquired in the following years are Promax Applications Group, Appirio, Rational Interaction, Capco, etc. Recently, Company has also partnered with IBM software systems to launch its 5G solutions. It also expanded its business to Bangladesh a few years ago and extensively invested in the European market.

About Azim Premji

Azim Premji is the founder chairman of Wipro who took responsibility for the business after his father passed away. He was born in a Gujarati Muslim family in Bombay. Azim Premji completed his graduation from Standford University and returned back to India immediately and started working for the company. In 2005, he received Padma Bhushan for his contribution to trade and commerce.

Annasha

Adyen – The Leading Online Payment Processing Service Providers.

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By Yashica Vashishtha

Online payments have made banking and online shopping way easier. Now we can easily make payments to people sitting miles away without visiting the bank, saving time and money on travel. Buying things online and making payments through credit cards/debit cards have made things simpler. Other than credit cards and debit cards, apps are also some online payment methods that not only allow easy transfer of money but also allow bill payments, like electricity or broadband. The successful online payment through the cards, wallets, or payment apps depends on the gateway or the payment processor the platform uses (responsible for the security at the same time). Companies like Adyen are behind such payment processors that make every online transaction possible and secure.

About Adyen

Adyen is a Netherlands-based payment company with its headquarters based in Amsterdam. The company was founded in 2006, and since then, it has been providing e-commerce, mobile, and point-of-sale payment services. Payment service provider, gateway, risk management, local acquiring, point of sale, issuing are the major services by Adyen, which works on payment methods like a credit card, debit card, online banking, etc. Other than Amsterdam, Adyen has its branches in cities like Berlin, Brussels, Dubai, Hong Kong, London, Madrid, Manchester, Melbourne, Mexico City, Milan, Mumbai, Munich, New York, Paris, San Francisco, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Warsaw.

As per the 2020 records, the Adyen made annual revenues worth €684.2 million, and over 2300 people are working for it. In 2015, the company became the sixth largest European unicorn with a valuation worth $2.3 billion.

The Founding

Some of the Bibit ex-employees founded Adyen in 2006 after gaining enough experience in the field of online payments. The team included Pieter van der Does (CEO at Adyen) and Arnout Schuijff (Adyen CTO). Till the year 2012, the company was struggling to get a hold on the payment market in the Netherlands. But the real growth of the company started in 2011 when it started to expand globally. In the period of four-five years, Adyen opened offices in San Francisco, London, Paris, and many other cities of European countries. In 2016, the company reported a 99 percent growth in gross revenues as it made revenues worth $727 million that year.

In 2015, the company was valued at $2.3 billion, becoming the sixth largest European unicorn. The next year, Forbes ranked the company #10 in its Cloud 100 list and #5 in the same list in 2017. By 2017, It had gained acquiring licenses in pan-European, Brazil, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, etc. The company also received the European banking license in 2010, such that it had gained the status of an acquiring bank.

Adyen had its first IPO in 2018, and it went public on Euronext Amsterdam. The same year, the company bagged a partnership agreement from eBay, where the Company became the primary payment processing partner of the latter. In 2019, Adyen expanded its operations to Japan, India, and Africa as well as launched Adyen Issuing, a card (physical as well as virtual) issuing business. The company experienced a 51% increase in the annual revenue in the same year, as it made revenues worth EUR 497 million. In 2020, launched mobile Android POS devices for its global customers as a result of the outburst of Covid-19.

The CEO at Adyen

Pieter van der Does is one of the co-founders of Adyen and the current CEO at Adyen. He is a Dutch national and was born in 1968. Pieter has got a master’s degree in economics from the University of Amsterdam. His last job was at Bibit Global Payment Services, where he worked as the chief commercial officer. During his time at the company, he met the other co-founder of Adyen, and after Bibit was acquired by Royal Bank of Scotland in 2004, they decided to start Adyen. Pieter has been serving Adyen as the CEO from the inception of the company. Forbes ranked Pieter in its Forbes Billionaire list in 2020.

Yashica Vashishtha

Yashica is a Software Engineer turned Content Writer, who loves to write on social causes and expertise in writing technical stuff. She loves to watch movies and explore new places. She believes that you need to live once before you die. So experimenting with her life and career choices, she is trying to live her life to the fullest.

www.xornor.co

Dennis Gillings’s – One Of The Largest Clinical Research Company In The World.

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By Annasha

IQVIA is an American multinational company based in North Carolina, US. The company’s main services are pharmaceuticals, consulting, health information technology, and clinical research. It is also the world’s largest healthcare data science company and a pioneer in human data science technology. With more than 88,000 employees working across 100 countries, IQVIA is one of the largest companies in the world to conduct contract healthcare research. The company was formerly famous as Quintiles and IMS Health Inc and after their merger in 2016, the name was changed to IQVIA. Currently, IQVIA has a market capitalization of more than $49 billion.

About IQVIA

IQVIA is a market leader when it comes to both clinical research qualities and advanced technologies for data analytics. The history of IQVIA dates back to 1982 when Dennis Gillings established a company to provide biopharmaceutical developments and outsourcing services. Today, after 40 years of its successful business and growth, IQVIA has more than 1 billion patient records that are confidential and the company uses IQVIA human data science cloud for 72 times faster data analytics. IQVIA strives towards building a more accurate and efficient healthcare ecosystem and offering customers accurate results, accelerating outcomes, and creating new opportunities.

IQVIA is a result of the merger between two companies, IMS Health and Quintiles to bring the best out of human science and the healthcare industry. IMS Health was originally part of Cognizant Corporation and it was split into two companies (IMS Health and Nielson Media Research) in 1998. IQVIA has involved itself in a variety of projects in partnership with government as well as non-governmental organizations. It has also received several awards in the last few years including Fortune World’s Most Admired Companies in 2021.

History of IMS Health

Before becoming a part of IQVIA, IMS Health was famous for medical claims, electronic medical records, collection of healthcare information, etc. Before the merger, the company’s headquarters were located in Connecticut, US, and Ari Bousbib was the CEO of the company. In 1998, after IMS Health became an independent company, Cognizant Technology Solutions became a public subsidiary of the company. From then to 2015, the company made plenty of acquisitions starting with Cambridge Pharma Consultancy in 2002. In 2003, IMS Health acquired two companies, Marketing Initiatives and Data Niche Associates, and also sold its entire stake in Cognizant becoming two separate entities.

In 2004, it acquired United Research China to enter the Chinese market followed by other companies like PharMetrics (2005), Life Sciences from the Strategic Decisions Group (2006), IHS (2007), MedInitiatives (2007), and Value Medics Research (2007). IMS Health expanded very quickly and in 2007 it ranked in the Businessweek 50 and for two years (2008 and 2010) it became Fortune World’s Most Admired Companies. In 2008 it acquired a Russian company called RMBC and a Canadian company called Skura professional services group. In 2010, IMS Health became a private company as it was taken by TPG Capital, CPP Investment Board, and Leonard Green & Partners. Some of the other companies that IMS Health acquired after it was privatized are Brogan Inc, DecisionView, Boston Biomedical Consultants, etc.

About Quintiles

Founded in 1982, Quintiles is a company of Dennis Gillings and it has established many subsidiaries in international markets as well. Gillings first incorporated Quintiles in North Carolina and then in 1990, he established Quintiles Pacific and Quintiles Ireland. In the upcoming years, he also established the company in Germany and Atlanta. In 1996, the company made two big acquisitions, namely, Innovex and BRI International followed by becoming the world’s largest CRO. In 1998, Quintiles crossed the $1 billion revenue mark and the next year it became a part of the S & P 500 Index. In 2016, when Quintiles merged with IMS Health it was a deal of $9 billion. The name was changed to IQVIA in 2017.

About the Founder

Speaking of IQVIA, Dennis Gillings has a tremendous contribution behind it as the founder of Quintiles. He is an American billionaire and entrepreneur who founded a multinational company and took it public within a few years. He is also the former Chairman of the company.

Annasha

Roper Technologies – The Journey Of A Home Appliances Maker To Becoming A Conglomerate.

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By Yashica Vashishtha

Technology has become an essential part of our lives, and we can’t only include computer and mobile technology in the category, but it has a vast scope. There are companies that specialize in one niche, but many are there to offer almost every type of technology service. Roper Technologies is one such conglomerate with an extended scope. The company is based in America and serves diversified industries and offers services like radio Frequency Technology, Industrial Technology, Scientific Technology, Energy Systems, Controls, etc. The company is a unicorn with a worth over 3 billion annual revenues.

About Roper Technologies

Roper Technologies was founded in 1890, over a century ago. It started as a home appliances company and later expanded into miscellaneous technology-related products. George D. Roper was the founder of the company, and Neil Hunn is the current president and CEO of Roper Technologies. It is a publically traded company and trades on New York Stock Exchange as ROP. The products by the company include Industrial technology, radio frequency (RF) technology, scientific and industrial imaging, energy systems and controls, and instrumentation. As of 2021, over 1800 thousand people were working for Roper, and it made annual revenues worth US$ 3,238.128 million in 2013. The company is operational in more than 100 countries.

The Founding

George D. Roper is the founder of Roper Technology Inc. He founded the company in 1890 as the manufacturer of home appliances. The journey of Roper to become a conglomerate started with multiple acquisitions. In 1906, the company acquired Trahem Pump Co., and in the following years, it acquired names like David Bradley Manufacturing Works (1966), Sunquest Information Systems (2012), Vertafore (2020), etc. These acquisitions made the company start services like pump manufacturing, outdoor lawn equipment, radio frequency identification(RFID), diagnostic and laboratory software (development), etc.

In the period of hundred years, the ownership for the company and its subsidiaries also went under other players who were responsible for the overall growth of Roper. The Florence Stove Co. of Kankakee had acquired the Roper’s stove business in 1957. Electrolux took over the company’s lawn and garden equipment wing in 1988. In 1989, Whirlpool Corporation acquired Roper as a whole brand and had an IPO in 1992. Roper was operating as Roper Industries Inc, and in 2015, it had a name change to Roper Technologies Inc. Today, Roper is operational in over 100 countries. It operates through its subsidiaries, including DAP Technologies, IPA, LLC, Media Cybernetics, Princeton Instruments, Roper Pump Co., DAT Solutions and TransCore, Data Innovations, ConstructConnect, and DAT Solutions, etc.

The CEO at Roper Technologies

Neil Hunn is the president and CEO at Roper Technologies Inc. He has got a bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting from Miami University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Hunn started his career at Deloitte Consulting as a Business Analyst. He then worked at The Parthenon Group for a year as a consultant and switched to MedAssets in 2001, working as the SVP, Corporate Development. After working for over five years, he was promoted to be the Chief Financial Officer in 2007 and then the President of the Revenue Cycle Technology in the same company in 2010.
Hunn joined the Roper Group in 2011 and worked as the President of the medical segment of Roper Technologies. In July 2017, he became the Executive Vice President, and in 2018, he was promoted to be the COO of the company. Hunn became the President and Chief Executive Officer at Roper Technologies in 2018.

Yashica Vashishtha

www.xornor.co

Global Payments – Boosting The Digital Commerce Ecosystem Since 2000.

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By Annasha

In 1996, Global Payments was originally established as a subsidiary of the National Data Corporation. It was spun off very shortly and it became an independent company that is currently listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Global Payments is a leading American company in the payment processing industry that offers its services to a wide range of customers from financial institutions to small and medium businesses. Some of the world’s largest companies are also customers of Global Payments including Nixon, Sodexo, Kiko, etc. The company has virtually spread across more than 100 countries and has physical operation support in 38 countries. In June 2021, It was featured as one of the Fortune 500 companies.

About Global Payments

Global Payments have become very famous within two decades especially because they support businesses of every size. The company successfully carries out billions of transactions every year very safely and smoothly. There are 24,000 employees working for the company who are delivering expert advice to the customers and keeping them ahead of the competition. The team of Global Payments is very diverse as they belong to 80 different nationalities and also speak 16 native languages.

Global Payments offers services to a variety of industries including retail, entertainment, luxury, grocery, hospitality, etc. Using the advanced technology of Global Payments, payments can be accepted in various modes. Online payment allows transactions from anywhere in the world. There are other options like unified payments, point of sale, integrated software, etc. The payment technology is so versatile that it helps both the merchants and the consumers. Amidst the immense success of the company, Global Payments also fall victim to a data breach incident ten years ago. Millions of debit and credit number numbers were affected and it cost the company $100 million.

History of the Company

Global Payments started operating as an independent company in 2001 and before that, it was operating under National Data Corporation. The company made several acquisitions and partnerships in the last two decades starting with United Card Service which is the leading credit card processing company in Russia. In 2009, Company paid $75 million to acquire this company for the card services. After two years, the United Card Service that was operating under Global Payments bought Alfa Bank’s credit card processing unit. In 2012, Company acquired Accelerated Payment Technologies for $413 million and after two years acquired an Australian company called Ezidebit for $305 million.

In the upcoming years, the series of acquisitions continued as it purchased many famous companies. For example, in January 2015, Global Payments acquired PayPros, a California-based payment company for $420 million. In the same year, it also acquired an Irish payment company called Realex Payments. In 2016, Company made one of the biggest acquisitions in its history as it bought Heartland Payment Systems for $4.3 billion. During this time, both companies were dominant in the payment processing industry. Some of the other companies that were acquired by the company are AdvancedMD, Sentral Education, and divisions of Active Networks. Three years ago, the company also announced a merger with TSYS for $21.5 billion but it also triggered a federal investigation. But, the merger took place after some time and the company has also announced a partnership with Google Cloud.

Jeffrey S. Sloan – CEO of Global Payments

Jeffrey S. Sloan is a very skilled leader with deep industry knowledge. It has been more than twenty-five years that he has strong expertise in the financial sector. Jeff became a part of Global Payments in 2010 when he joined the company as its President and in 2013 he became the CEO of the same. He has worked in many other famous companies in executive positions such as head of financial technology group for Goldman, Sachs & Co. Jeff was also featured in the Atlanta Business Chronicle as one of Atlanta’s Most Admired CEOs.

Annasha

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