Foundever Group S.A. (previously known as Sitel Group Its then-President, James F. Lynch, bought the company for $165,000 in 1985. He renamed it "SITEL/Sitel," which stands for "System International TELemarketing." and 16 employees.
Sitel was listed on NASDAQ in 1995. Afterwards, it expanded internationally by opening new offices and acquiring other call center companies abroad. Simultaneously, Sitel announced it bought a 69.2 percent interest in Teleaction, a Spanish-focused telemarketing company, for about $24 million. That same year, Sitel acquired Canadian Telephone Corporation. 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. acquired Sitel in 2015, valuing the company at $850 million.
In June 2021, Sitel acquired a public customer service company Sykes Enterprises for $2.2 billion. In March 2023, Sitel and Sykes fully merged to form Foundever.
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. 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.
Products and services
Foundever provides out-sourced call center services, as well as consulting, analytics, and support for other business processes. The company operates out of large buildings with employees that speak different languages. For example, employees might take a phone order for a consumer product or troubleshoot problems with a bank account. It started specializing in different industries and services in 1990.