Infosys Ltd’s announcement late Wednesday to buy two US-based tech services firms for $560 million takes its acquisition spend in a fiscal to an all-time high, reflecting the pressing need for new capabilities as automation tools upend India’s tech sector.
The country’s second-largest information technology (IT) services company said it will spend up to $465 million to buy Optimum Healthcare IT, a Florida IT services and consulting firm.
On the same day, it announced the acquisition of Stratus, a New Jersey-based tech services provider to the insurance sector, for up to $95 million.
Both deals are in cash and are expected to close by June. The payment includes upfront amounts and earn-outs but excludes management incentives and retention bonuses.
The acquisitions will add $319 million in incremental revenue to Infosys, including $276 million from Optimum Healthcare and $43 million from Stratus, making up almost 45% of Infosys’ incremental revenue last year.
Infosys ended last year with $19.28 billion in revenue, up 3.85% on a yearly basis. It expects to end the current fiscal with 3-3.5% growth in constant currency terms. Constant currency does not account for currency fluctuations.
Industry-wide increase in buyouts
These buyouts take to five the number acquisitions Infosys has made this fiscal. In April last year, it bought MRE Consulting in the US and Australian cybersecurity firm, The Missing Link, for about $98 million combined. Three months later, it acquired Australia's Versent Group for over $150 million.
The Wednesday's deals takes the Indian tech services bellwether's total spending on acquisitions in FY26 to $808 million, or ₹7,500 crore — the highest spent on acquisitions among the country’s five largest IT services companies including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), HCL Technologies, Wipro, and Tech Mahindra.
TCS, HCLTech, and Wipro spent $773 million, $400 million, and $375 million on acquisitions in the current fiscal, respectively. Mumbai-based TCS bought three companies led by a spending of $700 million to buy Florida-based Coastal Cloud. Fiscal 2026 marks the highest it has spent on acquisitions in a single year since it listed in 2004.
Infosys’ expenditure on acquisitions this fiscal year is also its highest in the last two decades. The Bengaluru-based company trumped its FY25 record, when it spent around ₹3,155 crore on acquisitions, according to a Mint review.
However, this pales before deals at industry #7, Coforge Ltd, which spent $2.39 billion to acquire US-based Encora, in an all-stock deal. Significantly, Accenture Plc, which is the world’s largest IT services firm, also increased its acquisition budget to $5 billion for the full year from the $3 billion earmarked a quarter before.
The flurry of acquisitions for Indian IT comes at a time of slow growth for the software services sector due to the rise of automation tools threatening to eat into the work of homegrown IT services firms and, more recently, the West Asia war.
What's in it for Infosys?
Infosys’ acquisition of Optimum Healthcare aims to improve cloud and digital transformation for healthcare providers like hospitals and clinics.
“By bringing together Optimum’s provider experience with Infosys Topaz and Infosys Cobalt, we are positioned to create a differentiated value proposition for healthcare providers—accelerating end-to-end cloud, data, and digital transformation at scale,” said Salil Parekh, chief executive of Infosys, as part of the company’s release to stock exchanges on Wednesday.
On the other hand, the Stratus acquisition is expected to improve Infosys’s industry-specific insurance offerings.
“Infosys is unlocking AI value for P&C (property and casualty) insurers through digital and data-led transformation,” said Kannan Amaresh, senior vice-president and head of insurance of Infosys in the company’s release.
As part of the acquisition, Infosys is expected to add more than 2,000 employees—around 1,600 from Optimum Healthcare and some 450 from Stratus. The company ended last year with 337,034 employees.
An expert termed the buyouts as targeted bets.
“These are not vanity acquisitions. They are targeted bets on healthcare provider transformation and P&C insurance modernization, two markets where industry expertise still separates real execution from AI theater,” said Phil Fersht, chief executive of HFS Research. “Infosys is clearly trying to move the conversation from broad AI ambition to industry-specific execution. That is where the real services value will be won.”
