Foundever

Foundever Group S.A. (previously known as Sitel Group<ref name="Foundever 2023"/>) is a privately owned customer experience technology company headquartered in Luxembourg City. Foundever provides outsourced sales, technical support, customer service, and other business processes for large companies. The company has 170,000 employees and $4 billion in revenue.

Foundever started as a subsidiary of United Technologies called HQ800 before being bought by then-President James Lynch in 1985. Renamed to Sitel, it grew quickly and became the first telemarketing organization to go public in 1995. It expanded internationally in the 1990s and 2000s. Financial problems prompted layoffs and restructuring in 2001. In 2007, majority owner Onex Corporation de-listed Sitel from NASDAQ. Groupe Acticall SAS, the current owner and operator, acquired Sitel in 2015. In 2021, Sitel merged with Sykes Enterprises to form Foundever.

History

Early history

Foundever started as a subsidiary of United Technologies called HQ800 and located in Omaha, Nebraska.<ref name="book">Template:Cite book</ref> Its then-President, James F. Lynch, bought the company for $165,000 in 1985.<ref name="Henry 1999">Template:Cite news</ref> He renamed it "SITEL/Sitel," which stands for "System International TELemarketing."<ref name="book" /> At the time, SITEL had about $100 million in annual revenue<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> and 16 employees.<ref name="journal">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Sitel was listed on NASDAQ in 1995.<ref name="The New York Times 1995">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="cc">Template:Cite news</ref> Afterwards, it expanded internationally by opening new offices and acquiring other call center companies abroad.<ref name="book" /><ref name="Henry 1999" /> For example, in 1996 Sitel acquired London-based telemarketing company Mitre PLC for $230 million.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref> Simultaneously, Sitel announced it bought a 69.2 percent interest in Teleaction, a Spanish-focused telemarketing company, for about $24 million.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> That same year, Sitel acquired Canadian Telephone Corporation.<ref name="journal" />

In the 1990s, Sitel grew about twelve-fold to $600 million in revenues.<ref name=":0" /> Sitel had 24,000 employees and 70 call centers but was struggling to turn a profit.<ref name="Henry 1999" /><ref name="cc" /> It had substantial debt from the cost of acquisitions<ref name="cc" /> and expenses related to closing unprofitable call centers it had acquired.<ref name="Henry 1999" /> In 2001, Sitel was restructured to reduce taxes<ref name="cc" /> and hundreds of middle-management positions were cut.<ref name="Henry 1999" />

Ownership changes

By 2005, Sitel had $1 billion in annual revenue.<ref name="journal" /> The majority owner of Sitel Group, Onex Corporation, bought-out shareholders for $450 million in 2007, taking Sitel off NASDAQ and making it a privately owned company.<ref name="Roumeliotis 2015" /> Sitel was merged with Onex Corporation's subsidiary ClientLogic Corporation.<ref name="reuters20072">Template:Cite web</ref> Onex paid an additional $51 million in 2008 and $60 million in 2014 to buy preferred shares, bringing its ownership of Sitel to 86 percent.<ref name="Roumeliotis 2015" />

France-based Group Acticall, which was founded in 1995 by Laurent Uberti and Olivier Camino,<ref name="Guerrero. 2017">Template:Cite web</ref> acquired Sitel in 2015, valuing the company at $850 million.<ref name="ReutersFrance">Template:Cite web</ref>

In June 2021, Sitel acquired a public customer service company Sykes Enterprises for $2.2 billion.<ref name="sykes">Template:Cite news</ref> In March 2023, Sitel and Sykes fully merged to form Foundever.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

2022 data breach

Okta, a large identity and access management company, had a security breach in early 2022 that it blamed on Sykes, one of many companies which provides customer support services for Okta.<ref name = tech2>https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/23/okta-breach-sykes-sitel/ Okta says hundreds of companies impacted by security breach by Zack Whittaker TechCrunch March 23, 2002 Retrieved 4/4/22</ref> Documents leaked in May 2022 raised serious questions about Sitel/Sykes' security defenses, and gaps in Okta's response to being notified of the security breach by Sitel.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Products and services

Foundever provides out-sourced call center services, as well as consulting, analytics, and support for other business processes.<ref name="The Irish Times 2013">Template:Cite news</ref> The company operates out of large buildings with employees that speak different languages.<ref name="Guerrero. 2017" /> Its call centers are used for things like sales, customer service, collections, and back-office work.<ref name="cc" /><ref name="Roumeliotis 2015">Template:Cite web</ref> For example, employees might take a phone order for a consumer product or troubleshoot problems with a bank account.<ref name="Guerrero. 2017" /> It also operates sub-brands for things like training and IT software.<ref name="Guerrero. 2017" /> It also develops customer service chatbots.<ref name="Guerrero. 2017" />

Initially, Sitel primarily did sales calls for insurance and credit card companies.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> It started specializing in different industries and services in 1990.<ref name="journal" /> Sitel started doing inbound calls in 1990<ref name="Henry 1999" /> tech support in 1997<ref name="journal" /> and customer relationship management in 2001.<ref name="cc" />

External links

• Official website
• Foundever - Who We Are