Dimension Data Subsidiary Plans North American BPO Market Move With Millennium1 Solutions Buy

Global solution provider Dimension Data and its contact center subsidiary Merchants has acquired Millennium1 Solutions as a way to enter the North American business process outsourcing, or BPO, market.

The acquisition of Toronto-based Millennium1 Solutions wraps up a one-and-a-half-year search for a way to enter the North American BPO market, said George Todd, former managing director of Johannesburg, South Africa-based Merchants who is now CEO of the newly-enlarged company.

"We've been looking for entry into North America, but couldn't find the right target until someone pointed out to us that Millennium 1 was looking for a buyer," Todd told CRN.

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Tom Band, CEO of Millennium1, told CRN that his company was purchased five years ago by The Gores Group as part of a carve-out from its previous owner, which felt Millennium1 was a non-strategic asset. In the five years since then, under The Gores Group, the company saw its sales nearly double to about 100 million Canadian dollars.

Merchants is a 36-year-old provider of BPO services for a wide-range of vertical markets with primary offices in South Africa and the Philippines, Todd said. Its customer base includes such global enterprises as Coca Cola and Mercedes Benz.

Millennium1 is a leading provider of BPO solutions to Canadian businesses, Band said. The company also provides full life-cycle credit card support, including everything but the plastic and the invoicing.

Mellennium1's acquisition by Merchants will help accelerate plans the company had to expand to the U.S., Band said.

"This accelerates some of our desired growth, including the credit card business in the U.S.," he said. "Our foray into the U.S. was planned to include credit card services as well as voice and data center services."

Merchants' parent company, New York-based Dimension Data, which is ranked number 9 in the 2018 Solution Provider 500, gives Merchants leverage to expand into the U.S. market vis Millennium1, Todd said.

"We already offer a lot of what we plan to bring to the U.S. through Dimension Data," he said.

Todd said the entire Millennium1 team is expected to join Merchants after the acquisition, which actually closed on June first for an undisclosed sum.

"One of our pre-conditions is that the entire management team come to Merchants," he said. "And so the senior leadership team will remain with us. In fact, not a single job will be lost in Canada, the Philippines, or South Africa because of the acquisition."