ICT sale 'great', but for whom?

ICT Group, the multinational call-center operator based up in Newtown, agreed today to sell to Sykes Enterprises Inc., Tampa, for $15.38 a share in cash and stock.

That's almost double the $8 a share ICT turned down in March, from India's Essar Group.

"This is a great transaction for a great local company, by reference to where the stock had been," Richard Aldridge, leader of a team of 13 Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP lawyers who advised ICT, told me.

Great for whom?  Great, or at least good, for the shareholders, led by ICT chief executive John J. Brennan. The sale price is less than half ICT's 2006 peak, but more than five times last year's low.

What about ICT's 18,000 workers?  Sykes plans to shave $20 million off ICT's yearly expenses, and to boost its profitability, which is currently lower than Sykes'.

Under questioning from analysts, Brennan and Sykes' chief executive, Charles Sykes Jr., declined to say whom they plan to cut. But Sykes did say he's looking forward to adding ICT's centers in Mexico, India and Australia, three markets he covets.

ICT also has facilities across Canada and the Philippines; in Argentina, Costa Rica, and the U.K.; and in several U.S. states, including Pennsylvania sites in Allentown, Bloomsburg, Horsham, Lancaster and Lock Haven, and the headquarters in Newtown.