In a statement, PLDT said its board of directors has authorized ePLDT to acquire 100 percent of SPI's direct and indirect Philippine and offshore subsidiaries. SPI's corporate headquarters is based in New York, USA and has operations in the US, India, China, Philippines and Vietnam.
PLDT said it will use internally generated cash to fund ePLDT's acquisition of SPI although no amount was specified.
'The addition of SPI into ePLDT will broaden our participation in the promising BPO sector, which industry analysts forecast to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 9.2% in the next 4 years,' said PLDT president Napoleon Nazareno.
According to PLDT, SPI is the second largest pure-play BPO business process outsourcing ('BPO') company and the ninth largest independent BPO service provider worldwide.
The acquisition of SPI is meant to boost PLDT's expansion into BPO and provide marketing presence for ePLDT's Ventus call center group in North America and other regions where SPI operates.
ePLDT's Ventus, composed of three independent call center units, reported close to P2 billion in consolidated audited revenues for 2005 and accounts for almost 70 percent of ePLDT's total revenues.
Founded in the Philippines in 1980, SPI's core capabilities include content editorial and production, litigation support coding and electronic data discovery, medical transcription, database structuring and management and transaction processing.