Another point in favor of Russian programmers: last week it became known that the offshore software developer Luxoft will be sold to the American DXC Technologies for almost $2 billion. In 2013, Luxoft was valued at $556 million when it entered the New York Stock Exchange, when the buyers paid $69.6 million for 12.5% of the shares.

The company has Russian roots: in 2000, it separated from the IBS integrator Anatoly Karachinsky and Sergey Matsotsky. The idea behind offshore programming is to write custom software for large Western companies using teams of programmers living and working in countries with cheaper labor. "Creativity" – Luxoft CEO Dmitry Loshchinin named the key difference between Russian and Indian programmers. “Indians have a very good routine. Where programming of classical tasks and organization of mass work is required, we have no chance. But where it is required not only to perform what “What is clearly written down, but also to show initiative, to put forward a new idea, here we can compete,” he said in an interview with Vedomosti in 2000.

At that time, Luxoft was already servicing Boeing and IBM, and its staff numbered about 180 people. Now the company has about 13,000 employees, of which 1,872 work in Russia. Luxoft's largest development center is Ukraine (3,265 engineers), and the company also develops software for its customers. develops in Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, India, Vietnam.

The company earned $906 million in 2018. Its clients include Deutsche Bank and UBS. According to the report, contracts with its top five customers accounted for 47.4% of its revenue in 2018, compared with 64.9% in 2016. Russia accounted for only about 5.8% of Luxoft's annual revenue in 2018.

The share of contracts with the financial sector is also decreasing. If in 2016 it was 68.6%, then in 2018 it was 56.7%. But revenue from contracts with automobile manufacturers, on the contrary, is growing – its share changed from 12 to 17 ,5%. Digitalization projects in telecommunications companies, media, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, energy and aviation are also growing, the share of which in Luxoft's revenue increased from 19 to 26.8% over three years. DXC has made no secret of the fact that it wants to strengthen itself with these digital skills. Probably, by overpaying almost three times the company’s valuation at the time of placement, DXC is buying not its current, but its future business, once again supporting with hard currency the general course towards digitalization and strengthening the role of IT in business.

Luxoft had a place to look for personnel. Russian exports of IT services and software in 2017 amounted to $4 billion and are growing by about 14% annually. Each year, the industry is replenished with about 60,000 engineers from among recent graduates, Luxoft cites a Gartner report, which also indicates and the high quality of their education. Luxoft has been able to put their knowledge to good use. The question is: who will be able to follow in its footsteps?

How Luxoft grew to $2 billion