Flushed with Cash, French Call Center Teleperformance in 'Acquisitive Mood'

European call center outsourcing giant Teleperformance (News - Alert) SA has some money, and it’s not afraid to spend it. The company’s stock is at an all-time high, and chairman, Daniel Julien, said the company was in an “acquisition mood,” particularly inside the U.S. call center marketplace. The company’s value has risen over four percent since June of last year.

“We want to continue to strengthen our position in the U.S. market, not by buying more of the same but by entering into some verticals where we are not strong enough,” Julien told Bloomberg in an interview yesterday in Lisbon, where he was launching a new contact center. “In the last two years we didn’t do acquisitions and we are again in an acquisition mood,” he added.

Who wouldn’t be in an acquisition mood with more than 100 million euros in free cash flow and a 300 million-euro credit line from banks? This puts Paris-headquartered Teleperformance in the right position to add to its existing 250 contact centers in 49 countries.

Teleperformance, which was founded in 1978, counts among its customers European mobile phone company Nokia (News - Alert) Oyj and Aeromexico, among many others.

“If we make an acquisition it will be end of year or the beginning of next year,” Julien told Bloomberg (News - Alert). “We don’t want to acquire super-big companies, we prefer to acquire, step by step, mid-size companies between 50 million and 100 million in revenue.”

Julien said he credits companies’ increasing desire to outsource customer contact for the growth in the teleservices industry.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO Austin 2012, taking place Oct. 2-5, in Austin, TX. Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO (News - Alert). Follow us on Twitter.