Teleperformance

Teleperformance, the world's largest customer experience management (CXM) company, generated €5,355 million in revenue in 2019 with 331,000 employees across 80 countries. Despite its scale, the company's revenue was dominated by Core Services — high-volume, multilingual contact center operations competing primarily on labor cost arbitrage and geographic coverage. Core Services carried EBITA margins of approximately 12-13%, consistent with industry benchmarks for commodity BPO. Teleperformance had acquired LanguageLine Solutions in 2016 for $1.5 billion — a U.S.-based over-the-phone and video interpretation service serving healthcare, government, and legal clients — and combined it with TLScontact (government visa application management) and health management services into a Specialized Services segment. By 2019, Specialized Services generated approximately €708 million in revenue with EBITA margins of 31.8% (EBITA of €225 million) — roughly 2.5x the margin of Core Services. This segment was small (13.2% of total revenue) but disproportionately profitable.

Teleperformance pursued a dual strategy of organic growth in Specialized Services and acquisition-driven expansion:

• LanguageLine Solutions scaling: The 2016 acquisition ($1.5B) of LanguageLine became the anchor of Specialized Services. LanguageLine provides real-time interpretation in 240+ languages, serving 30,000+ clients in healthcare (where U.S. regulatory requirements under Title VI mandate interpretation services), government, and legal sectors. The business grew organically as demand for remote interpretation accelerated, particularly during and after COVID.
• TLScontact expansion: Teleperformance's government visa application management service (processing visa applications for UK, French, and other governments) recovered strongly after COVID-related travel shutdowns, contributing to Specialized Services growth.
• PSG Global Solutions acquisition (November 2022, $300M): Added digital recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) capabilities in the United States, further strengthening the high-value-added Specialized Services portfolio.
• Majorel acquisition (November 2023, €3.0 billion): The largest deal in Teleperformance's history. Majorel — a joint venture between Bertelsmann and Saham Group, publicly listed on Euronext Amsterdam — reported FY2022 revenue of approximately €2.1 billion (Majorel FY2022 annual results, published March 14, 2023), representing growth of ~16% year-over-year. Majorel brought approximately 82,000 employees with particular strength in content moderation and Trust & Safety (serving major social media platforms), digital customer experience, and multilingual CX services. The deal significantly expanded Teleperformance's presence in Africa, the Middle East, and the DACH region. Teleperformance obtained 99.91% of Majorel shares and delisted the company. For accounting purposes, Majorel was consolidated from November 1, 2023.