LanguageLine Solutions, a Monterey-based translation and localization firm, has been sold to to a French communications company, Teleperformance, for $1.52 billion.
The debt-financed acquisition brings LanguageLine’s on-demand translation services—for more than 240 languages—to Teleperforance’s “outsourced omnichannel customer experience management.”
What’s that? Think call centers, marketing emails and the customer service bot that wants to chat with you while you’re trying to buy a toaster online.
LanguageLine has approximately 200 employees at its headquarters at Ryan Ranch in Monterey. The company, which started as a partnership between a San Jose police officer and a U.S. marine interpreter from the Defense Language Institute, has grown into a multinational business that generated $388 million in revenue in 2015.
When asked if the merger could lead to a relocation, LanguageLine President and CEO Scott Klein says no.
“We were founded here over 34 years ago—this is our home,” Klein writes by email.
Having a new parent company that boasts 190,000 employees and more than $3 billion in annual revenue could actually lead to growth locally, Klein says.
“We will continue to operate as a stand-alone company—as we continue to grow more globally it will require additional resources here at our headquarters,” he adds.
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