Mahindra Satyam (MSat) has acquired 100% ownership of the international operations of customer services and technical support player vCustomer for $27m. For MSat, this is the first 100% acquisition since it became part of Mahindra Group. But most importantly it is a clear endorsement by parent Mahindra Group of MSat's recent progress (see ‘Healthy progress’ at Mahindra Satyam).
Details of what MSat is actually getting its hand on is very limited, although vCustomer’s capabilities in retail and consumer technology, and technical support are obviously key to the deal. vCustomer is a privately-held US-based BPO, employing some 4,000 people with operations in the US, UK, Philippines and India. Interestingly for us, vCustomer also provides higher value activities like customer loyalty management and support for marketing campaigns, which is an area we have earmarked for significant opportunity in our new report (see Communications-focused BPS – opportunities beyond document outsourcing).
Mind you, let’s hope that the ‘born again’ Mahindra Satyam can do a better job with BPO than in the pre-Raju days, when the service line only ever once made a quarterly net profit!