Seattle UX company Blink acquired by India-based IT services giant Mphasis

Blink co-founders Karen Clark Cole (left) and Kelly Franznick (right) with Nitin Rakesh, CEO of Mphasis. (Flashing photo)

Seattle-based UX and design company Blink has been acquired by Mphasis, a publicly traded IT services giant based in Bangalore, India.

Blink was founded 21 years ago and works with companies like Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, NASA and Starbucks. The company employs more than 130 people in offices in Seattle, Austin, Boston, San Diego and San Francisco. According to CEO and co-founder Karen Clark Cole, the company has generated $ 34 million in sales so far this year.

Blink will keep its name after the takeover and all employees will stay on board.

Founded in 1998, Mphasis had sales of more than $ 1.3 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31. Last year the company reached a market capitalization of $ 4.5 billion.

In 2016, the Blackstone Group acquired a majority stake in the company from Hewlett Packard.

“The acquisition of Blink is in line with our frontline M&A focus to bring well-researched design and impactful digital experiences to our customers and their end users,” said Nitin Rakesh, CEO of Mphasis, in a statement.

Blink grew slowly for years before it sped up. Recently, large companies interested in buying Blink began knocking on the door. Instead, Clark Cole and co-founder Kelly Franznick have developed a strategy to acquire smaller businesses of their own to become the largest UX company, Cole told GeekWire last year.

Blink didn’t raise any outside capital, said Cole.

“By developing products that meet requirements and run smoothly, we delight our customers and enrich their lives with technology,” said Clark Cole in a statement. “We are very pleased that Mphasis’ engineering skills are now part of our core, offering our customers end-to-end services and tracking our designs through to market launch.”