TOKYO—It used to be easy to find a Hitachi Ltd. product in the store, whether it was a Hitachi television set, a video recorder or a Hitachi Maxell battery.

Now one of the oldest of old-school Japanese industrial heavyweights is spending $9.6 billion to help remake itself as a company that emphasizes software and services. Hitachi said Wednesday it would buy a U.S. company, GlobalLogic Inc., that handles clients’ digital projects with an army of thousands of developers in places like India and Eastern Europe.

“This is going to be a kind of reform for the entire company,” said Hitachi’s chief executive, Toshiaki Higashihara.

Hitachi paid a rich price—more than four times the value assigned to GlobalLogic just three years ago. GlobalLogic had estimated revenue of $921 million in the year ending Wednesday, Hitachi said.

The U.S. company will join Hitachi’s existing software and services business, called Lumada. About 70% of Lumada’s business currently comes from Japan.