Sitel Acquires SYKES: Another Milestone Acquisition as CX Industry Competition Intensifies

Sitel Group® acquired SYKES in an all-cash transaction, valued at around US$2.2 billion, which was finalized on August 27, 2021. The magnitude of this deal resulted in a combined revenue of over US$4 billion. With this acquisition, Sitel Group joins the league of leading conglomerates in the contact center services industry. In one of the recent analyst briefings conducted with ISG stakeholders, Sitel Group shared its vision to scale operations, with M&A as a key area of focus for business growth. The recent ISG Provider Lens™ Report on Contact Center Outsourcing found Sitel Group to be one of the dominant leaders in the contact center industry, and the acquisition of SYKES will further strengthen its position as the leader of CX.

ISG expects three definitive outcomes from this acquisition that will help secure Sitel Group position in the CX space:

1. Scale

   In addition to expecting a boost in overall revenue, Sitel Group will be onboarding over 60,000 SYKES employees, bringing its headcount beyond 160,000. Both Sitel Group and SYKES have adopted the work-from-home model, and the merger will enable both companies to leverage existing solutions such as Sitel MAXhub and SykesHOME infrastructure to extend the work-from-home model to its agents and clients.

2. Geographic expansion

   Although Sitel Group has more than 110 delivery centers around the world, the acquisition will add another 55+ delivery centers to its portfolio, enabling it to expand its global footprint and deliver to clients across geographies. Currently, Sitel Group has a reasonably large presence in Europe, whereas SYKES derives nearly 81 percent of its revenue from the Americas, which includes North America, Latin America and Asia Pacific. SYKES recently invested in expanding its footprint in LATAM, including El Salvador and Costa Rica, where the latter is also the base for a significant number of its employees. Thus, this deal will give a competitive edge to Sitel Group in the Americas and enable it to tap the growing LATAM market, where only a few global providers have a strong foothold.

3. Technological synergies
   Sitel Group consolidated its solutions to launch its flagship and comprehensive CX suite, EXP+^TM. The company believes the SYKES acquisition and expands client base will provide opportunities to accelerate the implementation of this solution across regions. Also complementing Sitel Group existing digital capability is SYKES’ automation suite, which it expanded with the acquisition of Symphony and significant investments in AI. This will complement Sitel Group digital experience services with the addition of digital operations and process automation capabilities.

By expanding its capabilities and expanding its geographic presence, Sitel Group is clearly making steps to scale operations, but the move also brings with it the complexity of integration. Generally, with an acquisition of this size, consolidating services and new capabilities takes a significant amount of time. We have seen several instances in which companies have failed to integrate post-acquisition and sent mixed messages to clients.

In the coming months, Sitel Group must focus on bringing its existing and acquired solutions together to offer a holistic solution to its clients. Attrition is not new to the contact center industry, and with this acquisition, attrition in the form of the departure of key personnel could be a risk that clients must consider. Sitel Group has always emphasized people, empathy and culture. It must continue to prioritize these values and bring together the two firms to jointly pursue new clients. Since this is a large-scale acquisition, integration of services and solutions will need a lot of attention, with considerable focus on planning and time to ensure it is successful, so clients can reap the benefits.