ACS Buys CyberRep
Business process outsourcer Affiliated Computer Services Inc. said Friday that it bought McLean, VA-based CyberRep, a teleservices company that made headlines last year by swearing off outbound telemarketing.Terms were not disclosed. However, Allied Capital, the holding company that owned CyberRep, said in a separate statement that it has realized a net $7 million gain on its investment with CyberRep after buying the company in 1998 for $4 million. Allied also said it had the potential to gain another $2.8 million from an earn-out provision and additional sale proceeds now in escrow.
CyberRep has 2,000 employees and handled 20 million inbound transactions last year including telephone, e-mail and other Web-based contacts. In November, the company began offering media interviews with its executives, who declared the "death" of outbound telemarketing and said CyberRep was no longer taking outbound assignments. A CyberRep executive told the Washington Post that the company had replaced its outbound business, which made up half of CyberRep's revenue in 1999.
