SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 08, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Clearlink, a SYKES company, announced today it acquired Portent, Inc., a 22-year-old digital marketing agency. The acquisition matches a veteran agency team with a performance inbound marketing powerhouse. The result is a new kind of full-service model that offers clients the best of both worlds: collaboration with an agency services team, plus performance-based marketing.
Before now, clients who wanted performance marketing and inbound call center support went to one company. Those who wanted help with their marketing went to another. This acquisition combines two staples of digital marketing into one company: the pay-per-lead, high-margin performance marketing method, and the high-touch, retainer-driven digital agency consulting approach.
This acquisition closes that gap. It helps Clearlink provide marketing services to their performance partners. And it helps them provide performance marketing technology and resources to digital agency clients.
“We’ve been building this new organization with the goal of disrupting the model of the big, traditional agency,” Ted Roxbury, CMO of Clearlink, said. “This acquisition accelerates our efforts to get there and better serve our clients.”
“We’re positioned now to take our expertise and challenge the biggest digital agencies,” Portent CEO Ian Lurie said. “We’ve got the people and resources to do that. And we can do something no one else does: Truly pair our services with call tracking, sales and performance solutions.”
Portent will continue to operate independently. The agency will serve as Clearlink’s Seattle office. Ian Lurie, Portent’s CEO, will become Clearlink’s Executive Vice President of Marketing Services.
About Portent: Portent, founded in 1995, is a 30-person agency that provides search engine optimization, pay-per-click and paid media, social media, analytics, content, and creative services. The company serves business-to-business and business-to-consumer clients, including Les Schwab Tire Stores, Tumi, Nintex, Hitachi, Microsoft, Adidas and Fender Guitars.
About Clearlink: Clearlink, a SYKES company, partners with the world's leading brands to extend their reach, drive valuable transactions, and deepen consumer insight. Clearlink has delivered millions of customers to its brand partners, including AT&T, CenturyLink, Progressive, Safeco, and DISH, among others, through customized marketing, sales, and technology services. Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah and established in 2003, Clearlink employs more than 1,600 marketing, sales and technology professionals in Utah and Arizona. To learn more or to apply for open positions visit clearlink.com.
About Sykes Enterprises, Incorporated: Sykes Enterprises, Incorporated (“SYKES” or “the Company”) is a global business process outsourcing (“BPO”) leader in providing comprehensive inbound customer engagement solutions and services to Global 2000 companies primarily in the communications, financial services, healthcare, technology, transportation and leisure, retail and other industries. The Company’s differentiated end-to-end solutions and service platform effectively engages consumers at every touch point in their customer lifecycle, starting from digital marketing and acquisition to customer support, technical support, up-sell/cross-sell and retention. SYKES serves its clients through two geographic operating regions: the Americas (United States, Canada, Latin America, Australia and the Asia Pacific Rim) and EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa). Its Americas and EMEA regions primarily provide customer engagement services (with an emphasis on inbound technical support, digital marketing and demand generation, and customer service), which includes customer assistance, healthcare and roadside assistance, technical support, and product and service sales to our clients’ customers. These services are delivered through multiple communication channels including phone, e-mail, social media, text messaging, chat and digital self-service. It also provides various enterprise support services in the United States that include services for our clients’ internal support operations, from technical staffing services to outsourced corporate help desk services. In Europe, it also provides fulfillment services, which include order processing, payment processing, inventory control, product delivery and product returns handling. SYKES’ complete service offering helps its clients acquire, retain and increase the lifetime value of their customer relationships. The Company developed an extensive global reach with customer engagement centers across six continents, including North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa. It delivers cost-effective solutions that enhance the customer service experience, promote stronger brand loyalty, and bring about high levels of performance and profitability. For additional information please visit www.sykes.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may contain "forward-looking statements," including SYKES’ estimates of future business outlook, prospects or financial results, statements regarding SYKES’ objectives, expectations, intentions, beliefs or strategies, or statements containing words such as "believe," "estimate," "project," "expect," “intend,” “may," "anticipate," "plans," "seeks," “implies,” or similar expressions. It is important to note that SYKES’ actual results could differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements, and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements. Among the important factors that could cause such actual results to differ materially are (i) the impact of economic recessions in the U.S. and other parts of the world, (ii) fluctuations in global business conditions and the global economy, ability of maintaining margins offshore (iii) SYKES’ ability to continue the growth of its support service revenues through additional technical and customer contact centers, (iv) currency fluctuations, (v) the timing of significant orders for SYKES’ products and services, (vi) loss or addition of significant clients, (vii) the early termination of contracts by clients, (viii) SYKES’ ability to recognize deferred revenue through delivery of products or satisfactory performance of services, (ix) construction delays of new or expansion of existing customer support centers, (x) difficulties or delays in implementing SYKES’ bundled service offerings, (xi) failure to achieve sales, marketing and other objectives, (xii) variations in the terms and the elements of services offered under SYKES’ standardized contract including those for future bundled service offerings, (xiii) changes in applicable accounting principles or interpretations of such principles, (xiv) delays in the Company's ability to develop new products and services and market acceptance of new products and services, (xv) rapid technological change, (xvi) political and country-specific risks inherent in conducting business abroad, (xvii) SYKES’ ability to attract and retain key management personnel, (xviii) SYKES’ ability to further penetrate into vertically integrated markets, (xix) SYKES’ ability to expand its global presence through strategic alliances and selective acquisitions, (xx) SYKES’ ability to continue to establish a competitive advantage through sophisticated technological capabilities, (xxi) the ultimate outcome of any lawsuits or penalties (regulatory or otherwise), (xxii) SYKES’ dependence on trends toward outsourcing, (xxiii) risk of interruption of technical and customer contact management center operations due to such factors as fire, earthquakes, inclement weather and other disasters, power failures, telecommunications failures, unauthorized intrusions, computer viruses and other emergencies, (xxiv) the existence of substantial competition, (xxv) the ability to obtain and maintain grants and other incentives, including tax holidays or otherwise, (xxvi) risks related to the integration of SYKES’ acquisitions and (xxvii) other risk factors listed from time to time in SYKES’ registration statements and reports as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are made as of the date hereof, and SYKES undertakes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.