Sitel and Majorel Discontinue Merger Talks
The Sitel Group and Majorel have formally ended discussions on a proposed merger, the two companies announced on their respective websites. Despite what both companies described as due diligence being completed and synergies being validated, shareholders of the two companies were unable to reach agreement “on the final structure of the transaction against the background of the current macro environment,” reads the text from their core statements, which bear the same message even if not identically worded.
Both companies reference their “strong” track record or financial position and their “operational excellence” before providing individual statements of reassurance on what lies ahead.
Part of Sitel’s statement says: “As we look to the future, we remain committed to supporting our clients as they adjust to digital transformation with a flexible end-to-end CX delivery that is critical to their market competitiveness and edge.”
For his part, Majorel CEO Thomas Mackenbrock says: “We will continue to build on our momentum to deliver positive outcomes for our clients, our team members, our shareholders, and the local communities where we operate.”
The planned merger—first announced in June—was to have been a union of colossal proportions, involving two giant organizations located on opposite sides of the Atlantic—Sitel in Florida and Majorel in the European duchy of Luxembourg—with each company pulling in billion-dollar revenues and counting an employee base numbering in the tens of thousands.
Related Article: M&A and Funding: Sitel Group, Webhelp, Enghouse, and LeadSquared
Majorel Acquires Findasense
Earlier in September, Majorel acquired Findasense, its rival in Spain and a CX design company. The acquisition, made for an undisclosed amount, gives Majorel an extensive foothold in at least seven countries in Latin America, supporting the company’s strategy to further extend its technology and expert services line of business, especially in the area of CX transformation, and to tap into new consumer markets.
The acquisition is Majorel’s second in Latin America for the year after its purchase in June of Alembo, a business process outsourcing (BPO) vendor based in Suriname, to serve Dutch-speaking markets.
Findasense provides CX analytics, experience consulting, touchpoint design, social media engagement, and digital marketing services, with a particular focus on the industry verticals of financial services, consumer packaged goods, technology, and telecommunications.
Sutherland Acquires Augment CXM
Sutherland, the experience-led digital transformation company headquartered in Pittsford, New York, announced that it has acquired San Francisco-based CX platform company Augment CXM. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but the deal aims to expand the solutions portfolio of Sutherland, whose stated mission is to rethink and rebuild processes for the digital age by combining the speed and insight of design thinking with the scale and accuracy of data analytics.
Related Article: M&A Update: Funding for AI-Related Tech and New Acquisitions
Integrating Sutherland’s artificial intelligence (AI)-based human assist solutions with Augment CXM’s technology, featuring a semantic neural network and deep learning engine with built-in AI capabilities for understanding full conversations, results in a significant leap forward, says Doug Gilbert, chief information officer and chief digital officer at Sutherland.
“This powerful combination of augmenting human intelligence with AI technology to solve complex business problems enables our clients to achieve transformational business outcomes,” Gilbert adds. Benjamin Shan, vice president of conversational AI at Sutherland, agrees, saying the union takes the company’s “ability to exceed expectations to a whole new level.”
OvationCXM, Formerly Boomtown, Lands $20 Million in New Funding
OvationCXM, the customer experience management (CXM) company previously known as Boomtown, recently raised $20 million in a combined Series C and debt funding round, bringing its accumulated capital to date to more than $40 million. The latest funding round was led by Telstra Ventures with participation from KeyBank, JobsOhio Growth Capital Fund, JumpStart Ventures, Savano Capital Partners, Capital One Ventures, Nyca Partners, Neventa Capital, and CIBC Innovation Banking.
The fresh funding will enable Tiburon, California-based OvationCXM to expand its team of CXM experts and product designers as well as broaden the capabilities of CXMEngine, the company’s flagship platform. CXMEngine was designed to solve CX problems in real time—while a business is interacting with customers—to guide and fix CX in the moment. And by unlocking customer data visibility and enabling cross-channel communication and collaboration, the platform aims to help enterprises deliver exceptional CX.
Alfred Kahn IV, founder and CEO of OvationCXM, credits the CXMEngine platform with enabling enterprise clients to retain customers, grow revenue, and reduce operating expenses. “With our investors’ backing and strategic support, we’re in a position to sustain our strong growth and deliver better customer experiences through innovation,” Kahn says.
Texas Startup Kizen Raises $12 Million for Enterprise-Grade, No-Code Platform
Kizen, the Austin, Texas-based startup and provider of a no-code enterprise business platform, recently closed a $12 million seed round. The capital raise was funded by private investors, including several former C-level executives from Dell, Whole Foods, AT&T, Accenture, and Citibank. The seed funding will support expanded marketing and sales campaigns at Kizen and soon-to-be-released marketing and business intelligence modules, including machine learning (ML) tools and real-time insights derived from integrated data.
Kizen CEO John Winner says the company’s no-code customization can deploy software tailored to exact business processes at a fraction of the cost and time of legacy tech platforms. Its speed-to-value design and unified data model allow companies to implement and tailor workflows for their own sales, operations, and customer support teams, and Kizen tools aim to offer businesses of all sizes a practical path to functioning AI across an integrated enterprise.
The company currently offers two products that integrate seamlessly and can be deployed on-premise or through the cloud. The first product, Kizen Sales CRM, helps ensure enterprise alignment and accelerate the sales process. The second product, Kizen Operations Cloud, unifies enterprise data and enables operations teams to quickly build hyper-customized workflows without coding and automate processes with enterprise-level governance.
Author Information
Alex is responsible for writing about trends and changes that are impacting the customer experience market. He had served as Principal Editor at Village Intelligence, a Los Angeles-based consultancy on technology impacting healthcare and healthcare-related industries. Alex was also Associate Director for Content Management at Omdia and Informa Tech, where he produced white papers, executive summaries, market insights, blogs, and other key content assets. His areas of coverage spanned the sectors grouped under the technology vertical, including semiconductors, smart technologies, enterprise & IT, media, displays, mobile, power, healthcare, China research, industrial and IoT, automotive, and transformative technologies.
At IHS Markit, he was Managing Editor of the company’s flagship IHS Quarterly, covering aerospace & defense, economics & country risk, chemicals, oil & gas, and other IHS verticals. He was Principal Editor of analyst output at iSuppli Corp. and Managing Editor of Market Watch, a fortnightly newsletter highlighting significant analyst report findings for pitching to the media. He started his career in writing as an Editor-Reporter for The Associated Press.
