Executive Summary

In 2008, our revenues increased to $2,816.3 million compared to $2,135.6 million in 2007. Net income increased to $430.8 million or $1.44 per diluted share, including stock-based compensation expense and stock-based Indian fringe benefit tax expense net of tax of $0.15 per diluted share during 2008. This is compared to $350.1 million or $1.15 per diluted share, including stock-based compensation expense and stock-based Indian fringe benefit tax expense net of tax of $0.12 per diluted share during 2007. The key drivers of our revenue growth in 2008 were as follows:

• strong performance across all our business segments, each of which had year-over-year revenue growth equal to or greater than 28.2%;

• greater penetration of the European market, where we experienced revenue growth of 57.8% in 2008 as compared to 2007;

• expansion of our service offerings, which enabled us to cross-sell new services to our customers and meet the rapidly growing demand for complex large-scale outsourcing solutions;

• increased penetration at existing customers, including strategic customers; and

• continued expansion of the market for global delivery of IT services and business process outsourcing.

We saw a continued increase in demand from our customers for a broad range of IT solutions, particularly high performance web development initiatives and complex systems development engagements, testing, enterprise resource planning, or ERP, infrastructure management, business process outsourcing and business intelligence. We finished the year with approximately 565 active clients compared to approximately 500 as of December 31, 2007 and increased the number of strategic clients by 21 during the year bringing the total number of our strategic clients to 128. We define a strategic client as one offering the potential to generate $5 million to $50 million or more in annual revenues at maturity. Our top five and top ten customers accounted for 19.4% and 30.0%, respectively, of our total revenues in 2008 as compared to 23.9% and 34.3%, respectively, for the year ended December 31, 2007. As we continue to add new customers and increase our penetration at existing customers, we expect the percentage of revenues from our top five and top ten customers to continue to decline over time.

In Europe, we continue to experience solid growth. During 2008, our revenue from European customers increased by 57.8% to $541.1 million compared to $342.9 million in 2007. In 2008, revenue from Europe, excluding the UK, increased by $91.3 million from $121.8 million in 2007 to $213.1 million. Europe will continue to be an area of significant investment for us in 2009 as we see this region and the Asia Pacific region, particularly Japan, India, Australia and Singapore, as growth opportunities for the long term.

Our revenue growth is also attributed to increasing market acceptance of, and strong demand for, offshore IT software and services and business process outsourcing. Recent NASSCOM (India's National Association of Software and Service Companies) reports state that India's IT software and services and business process outsourcing sectors are expected to reach an estimated $47 billion by the end of the fiscal year March 31, 2009. This is an expected growth rate of approximately 16% to 17% over the prior fiscal year.

In 2008, our operating margin increased to 18.3% compared to 17.9% in 2007. Excluding stock-based compensation costs of $43.9 million and stock-based Indian fringe benefit tax expense of $8.1 million, operating margin in 2008 was 20.2%. This was slightly above our historic targeted operating margin range, excluding stock-based compensation costs and stock-based Indian fringe benefit tax expense, of 19% to 20% of total revenues. The operating margin increase was primarily due to the favorable impact of the depreciation of the Indian rupee versus the U.S. dollar and achieving operating efficiencies as a result of our revenue growth outpacing our headcount growth, partially offset by an increase in compensation costs. Historically, we have

invested our profitability above the 19% to 20% operating margin level, which excludes stock-based compensation and stock-based Indian fringe benefit tax expense, back into our business, which we believe is a significant contributing factor to our strong revenue growth. This investment is primarily focused in the areas of: (i) hiring client partners and relationship personnel with specific industry experience or domain expertise; (ii) training our technical staff in a broader range of IT service offerings; (iii) strengthening our business analytic capabilities; (iv) strengthening and expanding our portfolio of services;
(v) continuing to expand our geographic presence for both sales and delivery; and (vi) recognizing and rewarding exceptional performance by our employees. In addition, this investment includes maintaining a level of resources, trained in a broad range of service offerings, to be well positioned to respond to our customer requests to take on additional projects. For 2009, we expect to continue to invest amounts in excess of our historical targeted operating margin levels back into the business.

During 2008, we experienced slower than initially expected revenue growth primarily due to the slowing global economy and softness in the financial services sector. This along with the appreciation of the Indian rupee versus the U.S. dollar during the first half of 2008 and continuing wage inflation, primarily in India, put pressure on our operating margins. In response, we implemented actions during the year that mitigated these negative market trends, including increasing the global utilization rates of our technical staff and reducing discretionary spending. In the second half of 2008, we benefited from the depreciation of the Indian rupee against the U.S. dollar, which favorably impacted our full year-over-year operating margin by approximately 119 basis points or 1.19 percent. Each additional 1.0% change in the exchange rate between the Indian rupee and the U.S. dollar will have the effect of moving our operating margin by approximately 25 basis points or 0.25 percentage points.

We finished the year with total headcount of approximately 61,700, an increase of approximately 6,300 over the prior year. The increases in the number of our technical personnel and the related infrastructure costs, to meet the demand for our services, are the primary drivers of the increase in our operating expenses in 2008. Annualized turnover, including both voluntary and involuntary, was approximately 14.2% for 2008. The majority of our turnover occurs in India. As a result, annualized attrition rates on-site at clients are below our global attrition rate. In addition, attrition is weighted towards the more junior members of our staff. We have experienced wage inflation in India, which may continue in the future; however, this has not had a material impact on our results of operations as Indian wages represented less than 20% of our total operating expenses.

Our current India real estate development program now includes planned construction of approximately 4.5 million square feet of new space. The expanded program, which commenced during the quarter ended March 31, 2007, includes the expenditure of approximately $330.0 million through the end of the program on land acquisition, facilities construction and furnishings to build new state-of-the-art IT development centers in regions primarily designated as Special Economic Zones located in India. During 2009, we expect to spend approximately $175 million globally for capital expenditures, a portion of which relates to our India real estate development program.

At December 31, 2008, we had cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments of $762.6 million and working capital of approximately $1,080.5 million. Accordingly, we do not anticipate any near-term liquidity issues. During 2008, we repurchased $27.8 million of our Class A common stock under a stock repurchase program that expired in September 2008. Stock repurchases under this program were funded from working capital. On December 3, 2008, the Board of Directors authorized a $50.0 million stock repurchase program, which expires in December 2009 and has similar terms to the previous program. No shares were repurchased under this program in December 2008.

During 2009, we expect the following factors to affect our business and our operating results:

• Slowing global economy, particularly weakness in the United States and the United Kingdom;

• Continued weakness in the financial services sector;

• Pressure on customer IT budgets, which may result in delays or decreases in spending by customers on discretionary projects, specifically application development projects. However, we expect a focus by customers

• Foreign currency volatility.

In response to this challenging macroeconomic environment, we plan to:

• Partner with our existing customers to see where we can provide innovative solutions resulting in our garnering an increased portion of our customers' overall IT spend;

• Continue our focus on growing our business in Europe and the Asia Pacific region, where we believe there are opportunities to gain market share;

• Expand our BPO and infrastructure management practices, which are in high demand in this challenging business environment;

• Continue to aggressively increase our customer base across all of our business segments;

• Opportunistically look for acquisitions that can improve our overall service delivery capabilities; and

• Continue operating focus and discipline to appropriately manage our cost structure.

Critical Accounting Estimates and Risks

Management's discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations is based on our consolidated financial statements that have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. The preparation of these financial statements requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported for assets and liabilities, including the recoverability of tangible and intangible assets, disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities as of the date of the financial statements, and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reported period. On an on-going basis, we evaluate our estimates. The most significant estimates relate to the recognition of revenue and profits based on the percentage of completion method of accounting for certain fixed-bid contracts, the allowance for doubtful accounts, income taxes, valuation of investments, goodwill and other long-lived assets, assumptions used in valuing stock-based compensation arrangements, contingencies and litigation. We base our estimates on historical experience and on various other assumptions that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances, the results of which form the basis for making judgments about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The actual amounts may differ from the estimates used in the preparation of the accompanying consolidated financial statements. Our significant accounting policies are described in Note 1 to the consolidated financial statements.

We believe the following critical accounting policies require a higher level of management judgments and estimates than others in preparing the consolidated financial statements:

Revenue Recognition. Revenues related to our highly complex information technology application development contracts, which are predominantly fixed-priced contracts, are recognized as the service is performed using the percentage of completion method of accounting. Under this method, total contract revenue during the term of an agreement is recognized on the basis of the percentage that each contract's total labor cost to date bears to the total expected labor cost (cost to cost method). This method is followed where reasonably dependable estimates of revenues and costs can be made. Management reviews total expected labor costs on an ongoing basis. Revisions to our estimates may result in increases or decreases to revenues and income and are reflected in the consolidated financial statements in the periods in which they are first identified. If our estimates indicate that a contract loss will be incurred, a loss provision is recorded in the period in which the loss first becomes probable and reasonably estimable. Contract losses are determined to be the amount by which the estimated costs of the contract exceed the estimated total revenues that will be generated by the contract and are included in cost of revenues in our consolidated statement of operations. Contract losses for all periods presented were immaterial.

Stock-Based Compensation. Under the fair value recognition provisions of SFAS No. 123R, stock-based compensation cost is measured at the grant date based on the value of the award and is recognized as expense over the vesting period. Determining the fair value of stock-based awards at the grant date requires judgment, including estimating the expected term over which the stock awards will be outstanding before they are exercised, the expected volatility of our stock, the number of stock-based awards that are expected to be forfeited and, beginning in 2007, due to a recent tax law change in India, the expected exercise proceeds for stock-based awards subject to the Indian fringe benefit tax. In addition, for stock performance units, we are required to estimate the most probable outcome of the performance conditions in order to determine the amount of stock compensation costs to be recorded over the vesting period. If actual results differ significantly from our estimates, stock-based compensation expense and our results of operations could be materially impacted.

Income Taxes. Determining the consolidated provision for income tax expense, deferred income tax assets and liabilities and related valuation allowance, if any, involves judgment. As a global company, we are required to calculate and provide for income taxes in each of the jurisdictions where we operate. Changes in the geographic mix or estimated level of annual pre-tax income can also affect the overall effective income tax rate. Effective January 1, 2007, we adopted Financial Interpretation No. 48, "Accounting for Uncertainty in Income Taxes-an Interpretation of SFAS No. 109" (FIN 48). FIN 48 contains a two-step approach to recognizing and measuring uncertain tax positions accounted for in accordance with SFAS No. 109, "Accounting for Income Taxes." The first step is to evaluate the tax position for recognition by determining if the weight of available evidence indicates that it is more likely than not that the position will be sustained on audit, including resolution of related appeals or litigation processes, if any. The second step is to measure the tax benefit as the largest amount that is more than 50% likely of being realized upon settlement.

Tax exposures can involve complex issues and may require an extended period to resolve. Although we believe we have adequately reserved for our uncertain tax positions, no assurance can be given that the final tax outcome of these matters will not be different. We adjust these reserves in light of changing facts and circumstances, such as the closing of a tax audit or the refinement of an estimate. To the extent that the final tax outcome of these matters is different than the amounts recorded, such differences will impact the provision for income taxes in the period in which such determination is made. The provision for income taxes includes the impact of reserve provisions and changes to reserves that are considered appropriate, as well as the related net interest.

On an on-going basis, we evaluate whether a valuation allowance is needed to reduce our deferred income tax assets to the amount that is more likely than not to be realized. While we have considered future taxable income and on-going prudent and feasible tax planning strategies in assessing the need for the valuation allowance, in the event we determine that we will be able to realize deferred income tax assets in the future in excess of the net recorded amount, an adjustment to the deferred income tax asset would increase income in the period such determination was made. Likewise, should we determine that we will not be able to realize all or part of the net deferred income tax asset in the future, an adjustment to the deferred income tax asset would be charged to income in the period such determination was made.

Our Indian subsidiaries (collectively, Cognizant India) are export-oriented companies, which, under the Indian Income Tax Act of 1961, are entitled to claim tax holidays for a period of ten consecutive years for each Software Technology Park (STP) with respect to export profits for each STP. Substantially all of the earnings of Cognizant India are attributable to export profits. The majority of our STPs in India are currently entitled to a 100% exemption from Indian income tax. Under current law, these tax holidays will be completely phased out by March 2010. In anticipation of the complete phase out of these tax holidays in March 2010, we expect to continue to locate a portion of our new development centers in areas designated as Special Economic Zones (SEZs). Development centers operating in SEZs will be entitled to certain income tax incentives for periods up to 15 years. Under current Indian tax law, export profits after March 31, 2010 from our existing STPs will be fully taxable at the Indian statutory rate (33.99% as of December 31, 2008) in effect at such time. If the tax holidays relating to our Indian STPs are not extended or new tax incentives are not introduced that would effectively

extend the income tax holiday benefits beyond March 2010, we expect that our effective income tax rate would increase significantly beginning in calendar year 2010.

Investments. Historically, our investments have been in municipal debt securities with interest rates that reset through a Dutch auction process, corporate notes and bonds, U.S. government agencies, bank time deposits and commercial paper meeting certain criteria. We evaluate our available-for-sale investments periodically for possible other-than-temporary impairment by reviewing factors such as the length of time and extent to which fair value has been below cost basis, the financial condition of the issuer and our ability and intent to hold the investment for a period of time, which may be sufficient for anticipated recovery of market value. An impairment charge would be recorded to the extent that the carrying value of our available-for-sale securities exceeds the fair market value of the securities and the decline in value is determined to be other-than-temporary.

Determining the fair value of our investment in auction-rate securities with unobservable inputs that are supported by little or no market activity requires judgment, including determining the appropriate holding period and discount rate to be used in valuing such securities. We value our investment in auction-rate securities using a discounted cash flow analysis, which incorporates the following key inputs: (i) the underlying structure of each security;
(ii) frequency and amounts of cash flows; (iii) expected holding period for the security; and (iv) discount rates that are believed to reflect current market conditions and the relevant risk associated with each security. In estimating the holding period, we considered the current developments in the auction-rate market including: our ability to hold the securities for such period of time, recent calls of auction-rate securities by issuers and the possible reestablishment of an active market for the auction-rate securities that we hold. Based upon these factors, we used a holding period of five years for securities with a stated maturity beyond five years, which represents the period of time we anticipate will elapse before a liquidity event will occur. An increase or decrease in the holding period by two years would change the fair value of our investment in auction-rate securities by approximately $10.0 million. We derive the discount rate by considering observable interest rate yields for bonds supported by student loans and pricing of new bond issuances, and adding an illiquidity premium to such rates. The illiquidity premium was estimated by management considering current market conditions. As of December 31, 2008, we used a weighted-average illiquidity premium of 140 basis points. This weighted-average illiquidity premium has been impacted by overall issues within the credit and capital markets and related increases in volatility including uncertainty of the credit and money markets. An increase or decrease to the illiquidity premium of 100 basis points would change the estimated fair value of our investment in auction-rate securities by approximately $6.0 million. Our valuation is also impacted by changes in market interest rates because the interest payments we receive on our auction-rate securities vary based on a pre-determined formula with spreads tied to particular interest rate indices. An increase or decrease in market interest rates of 50 basis points would change the estimated fair value of our investment in auction-rate securities by approximately $9.0 million. We anticipate there will be ongoing developments in the credit markets and the market for the auction-rate securities that we hold. Accordingly, our estimates of the expected holding period and illiquidity premium used in valuing such securities are reasonably likely to change in the short-term.

Allowance for Doubtful Accounts. We maintain an allowance for doubtful accounts for estimated losses resulting from the inability of our customers to make required payments. The allowance for doubtful accounts is determined by evaluating the relative credit-worthiness of each customer, historical collections experience and other information, including the aging of the receivables. If the financial condition of our customers were to deteriorate, resulting in an impairment of their ability to make payments, additional allowances may be required.

Goodwill. We evaluate goodwill for impairment at least annually, or as circumstances warrant. When determining the fair value of our reporting units, we utilize various assumptions, including projections of future cash flows. Any adverse changes in key assumptions about our businesses and their prospects or an adverse change in market conditions may cause a change in the estimation of fair value and could result in an impairment charge. As of December 31, 2008, our goodwill balance was $154.0 million.

Long-Lived Assets. In accordance with SFAS No. 144, "Accounting for the Impairment or Disposal of Long-Lived Assets", we review long-lived assets and certain identifiable intangibles for impairment whenever

events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of an asset may not be recoverable. In general, we will recognize an impairment loss when the sum of undiscounted expected future cash flows is less than the carrying amount of such asset. The measurement for such an impairment loss is then based on the fair value of the asset. If such assets were determined to be impaired, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Risks. The majority of our IT development centers, including a majority of our employees, are located in India. As a result, we may be subject to certain risks associated with international operations, including risks associated with foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations and risks associated with the application and imposition of protective legislation and regulations relating to import and export or otherwise resulting from foreign policy or the variability of foreign economic or political conditions. Additional risks associated with international operations include difficulties in enforcing intellectual property rights, limitations on immigration programs, the burdens of complying with a wide variety of foreign laws, potential geo-political and other risks associated with terrorist activities and local and cross border conflicts, and potentially adverse tax consequences, tariffs, quotas and other barriers. We are also subject to risks associated with our overall compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The inability of our management and our independent auditor to provide us with reasonable assurance regarding the adequacy and effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting for future year ends could result in adverse consequences to us, including, but not limited to, a loss of investor confidence in the reliability of our financial statements, which could cause the market price of our stock to decline. See Part I, Item 1A. "Risk Factors."

Results of Operations

The following table sets forth, for the periods indicated, certain financial data expressed for the three years ended December 31, 2008:

(Dollars in thousands)

                                                 % of                         % of                         % of           Increase (Decrease)
                                 2008          Revenues         2007        Revenues         2006        Revenues         2008           2007
Revenues                      $ 2,816,304         100.0 %    $ 2,135,577       100.0 %    $ 1,424,267       100.0 %    $  680,727      $ 711,310
Cost of revenues(1)             1,572,816          55.8        1,206,035        56.5          787,923        55.3         366,781        418,112
Selling, general and
administrative(2)                 652,021          23.2          494,102        23.1          343,238        24.1         157,919        150,864
Depreciation and
amortization                       74,797           2.7           53,918         2.5           34,163         2.4          20,879         19,755

Income from operations            516,670          18.3 %        381,522        17.9 %        258,943        18.2 %       135,148        122,579

Other income (expense),
net                                (1,460 )                       32,834                       18,868                     (34,294 )       13,966
Provision for income taxes         84,365                         64,223                       45,016                      20,142         19,207

Net income                    $   430,845          15.3 %    $   350,133        16.4 %    $   232,795        16.3 %    $   80,712      $ 117,338

(1) Includes stock-based compensation expense of $18,715, $17,206 and $13,400 for the years ended December 31, 2008, 2007 and 2006, respectively, and stock-based Indian fringe benefit tax expense of $2,731 and $1,979 for the years ended December 31, 2008 and 2007, respectively, and is exclusive of depreciation and amortization expense.

(2) Includes stock-based compensation expense of $25,185, $18,710 and $16,534 for the years ended December 31, 2008, 2007 and 2006, respectively, and stock-based Indian fringe benefit tax expense of $5,418 and $3,943 for the years ended December 31, 2008 and 2007, respectively, and is exclusive of depreciation and amortization expense.

The following table includes non-GAAP income from operations, excluding . . .