SAO PAULO, June 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Atento S.A. (NYSE: ATTO), the leading provider of customer relationship management and business process outsourcing solutions (CRM/BPO) in Latin America, and one of the three top providers worldwide, announced the signing of a strategic partnership and the acquisition of a minority stake at Keepcon, a leading provider of semantic technology-based automated customer experience management. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The addition of Keepcon will expand the Artificial Intelligence and automatization capabilities of Atento's omnichannel platform. The integration of Keepcon's semantic technology with Atento´s existing solutions allows for the monitoring, analysis and management of customer sentiment and needs through social media in real-time. This can be delivered through a blended automatized and agent-based solution or through a fully automatized solution.
The announcement is aligned with the launch of Atento Digital, a newly created global business unit integrating all of Atento's digital assets to generate additional value for clients and drive growth across verticals and geographies. The new platform will integrate digital marketing tools, automatization of front and back office customer processes and a robust omnichannel platform to generate efficiency and results for customer acquisition, management and retention.
Alejandro Reynal, Chief Executive Officer of Atento, commented, "The partnership with Keepcon will expand our digital capabilities, allowing us to provide differentiated customer experience solutions to generate competitive advantages for companies and increased satisfaction for consumers."
Matias Rozenfarb, Chief Executive Officer of Keepcon, added, "We are very excited about the partnership and the opportunities that Atento will bring to our clients and our employees, and we look forward to generating value by providing new capabilities to the company."
Digital services comprised 6% of Atento's total revenues in 2016, and we expect the launch of Atento Digital and our partnership with Keepcon to drive incremental digital services growth in 2017. Atento is the leading provider of customer related digital services in Latin America with a share of 11% in a market totaling 1 billion USD and with growth rates averaging above 9% in the coming five years (Frost & Sullivan and company estimates).
About Keepcon
Keepcon was created almost 9 years ago becoming the main semantic technology provider in the Spanish and Portuguese speaking markets. Based on the uniqueness of its proprietary linguistic approach, Keepcon originally created an automatic content moderation service becoming one of the largest players in semantic technology in this market. 3 years ago Keepcon started creating new services leveraged on the same technology, adding English to its semantic solutions and becoming a leading automated customer experience management service in Latin America by providing actionable insights for marketing and automation of customer care processes. While having offices in US, Brazil and Argentina, Keepcon has 40+ world class customers mainly in America and Europe. More info at www.keepcon.com
About Atento
Atento is the largest provider of customer relationship management and business process outsourcing (CRM/BPO) services in Latin America, and among the top three providers globally, based on revenues. Atento is also a leading provider of nearshoring CRM/BPO services to companies that carry out their activities in the United States. Since 1999, the company has developed its business model in 13 countries where it employs more than 150,000 people. Atento has over 400 clients to whom it offers a wide range of CRM/BPO services through multiple channels. Atento's clients are mostly leading multinational corporations in sectors such as telecommunications, banking and financial services, health, retail and public administrations, among others. Atento´s shares trade under the symbol ATTO on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). In 2016, Atento was named one of the World´s 25 Best Multinational Workplaces by Great Place to Work® for a third consecutive year. For more information visit www.atento.com
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "may," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "intends," "continue" or similar terminology. These statements reflect only Atento's current expectations and are not guarantees of future performance or results. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, competition in Atento's highly competitive industries; increases in the cost of voice and data services or significant interruptions in these services; Atento's ability to keep pace with its clients' needs for rapid technological change and systems availability; the continued deployment and adoption of emerging technologies; the loss, financial difficulties or bankruptcy of any key clients; the effects of global economic trends on the businesses of Atento's clients; the non-exclusive nature of Atento's client contracts and the absence of revenue commitments; security and privacy breaches of the systems Atento uses to protect personal data; the cost of pending and future litigation; the cost of defending Atento against intellectual property infringement claims; extensive regulation affecting many of Atento's businesses; Atento's ability to protect its proprietary information or technology; service interruptions to Atento's data and operation centers; Atento's ability to retain key personnel and attract a sufficient number of qualified employees; increases in labor costs and turnover rates; the political, economic and other conditions in the countries where Atento operates; changes in foreign exchange rates; Atento's ability to complete future acquisitions and integrate or achieve the objectives of its recent and future acquisitions; future impairments of our substantial goodwill, intangible assets, or other long-lived assets; and Atento's ability to recover consumer receivables on behalf of its clients. In addition, Atento is subject to risks related to its level of indebtedness. Such risks include Atento's ability to generate sufficient cash to service its indebtedness and fund its other liquidity needs; Atento's ability to comply with covenants contained in its debt instruments; the ability to obtain additional financing; the incurrence of significant additional indebtedness by Atento and its subsidiaries; and the ability of Atento's lenders to fulfill their lending commitments. Atento is also subject to other risk factors described in documents filed by the company with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which the statements were made. Atento undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise
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SOURCE Atento S.A.
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