Sykes Enterprises, Inc. (stylized as SYKES) was an American multinational business process outsourcing provider headquartered in

Tampa, Florida Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

. The company provided business process outsourcing (BPO) services, IT consulting, and IT-enabled services, such as

technical support Technical support, commonly shortened as tech support, is a customer service provided to customers to resolve issues, commonly with consumer electronics. This is commonly provided via call centers, online chat and email. Many companies provid ...

and

customer service Customer service is the assistance and advice provided by a company to those who buy or use its products or services, either in person or remotely. Customer service is often practiced in a way that reflects the strategies and values of a firm, and ...

. In 2021, Sitel Group acquired Sykes for $2.2 billion. In March 2023, Sitel and Sykes fully merged to form Foundever.

History

Sykes was founded in 1977 by John H. Sykes in Charlotte, North Carolina, to provide engineering and design services to large corporations. Companies such as

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

, and

Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American multinational semiconductor company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It is one of the top 10 semiconductor companies worldwide based on sales volume. The company's focus is on developing analog ...

were among Sykes' first clients. In 1992, the company moved into the

business by purchasing Jones Technologies, a

call center A call centre (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth spelling) or call center (American English, American spelling; American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, see spelling differences) is a managed capability th ...

company based in

Sterling, Colorado Sterling is a home rule municipality and the county seat and most populous municipality of Logan County, Colorado, United States. Sterling is the principal city of the Sterling, CO Micropolitan Statistical Area. The city population was 13,735 ...

. In 1993, Sykes relocated its corporate headquarters from Charlotte to

. Sykes became a publicly traded company in 1996. The company was listed on

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

under the stock symbol SYKE. David Grimes, a former AT&T executive, was named president of Sykes in 1998. John Sykes remained CEO and chairman. In 2000, Grimes became president and CEO. However, after 3 months, Grimes resigned and Sykes returned as president and CEO. Charles Sykes, John Sykes' son, became president and CEO of the company in 2004. Charles had been with the company 17 years before assuming his father's position. On June 18, 2021, a Sitel Group subsidiary acquired all outstanding shares of Sykes in a cash transaction valued at approximately $2.2 billion, removing the company from Nasdaq's publicly traded companies. The Sitel Group, in its new combination, brings together 160,000 employees in 40 countries, serving more than 700 customers and in more than 50 languages. This merger will enable the company to achieve revenue of approximately $4.3 billion in 2021.

Acquisitions

In 1992, Sykes purchased Jones Technologies, Inc. in

and entered into the

customer support Customer support is a range of services to assist customers in making cost effective and correct use of a product. It includes assistance in planning, installation, training, troubleshooting, maintenance, upgrading, and disposal of a product. Rega ...

business. Four years later, Sykes acquired Datasvar Support AB of Sweden and Diagsoft Inc. of

Scotts Valley, California Scotts Valley is a small city in Santa Cruz County, California, United States, about south of downtown San Jose and north of the city of Santa Cruz, in the upland slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains. As of the 2020 census, the city populati ...

; one year after this, they purchased bothMcQueen International Limited and the German company Telcare. In 2006, Sykes acquired

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

-based Apex America; in 2010, they acquired

ICT Group ICT Group, Inc. was a multinational call center and outsourcing company based in the Philadelphia suburb of Newtown. During the Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occ ...

. In 2012, Sykes purchased Alpine Access and three years later a company called Qelp. In 2016, Sykes acquired Clearlink from Utah and two years later the

Robotic process automation Robotic process automation (RPA) is a form of business process automation that is based on software robots (bots) or artificial intelligence (AI) agents. RPA should not be confused with artificial intelligence as it is based on automation tech ...

service provider Symphony Ventures. In 2020, Sykes carried out its last acquisition before being acquired by the Sitel Group in 2021. It purchased Taylor Media Corp. (TMC), a personal finance digital media company and owner of The Penny Hoarder.

References

External links

{{Finance links , name = Sykes Enterprises, Incorporated , symbol = SYKE , sec_cik = 1010612 , hoovers = sykes_enterprises_incorporated.3324bd5a62db7f2a 1996 initial public offerings 2021 mergers and acquisitions Business process outsourcing companies of the United States Business services companies established in 1977 Business services companies disestablished in 2021 Call centre companies Companies based in Tampa, Florida Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Multinational companies headquartered in the United States Technology companies based in Florida