logo image
  • News
    • People Moves
    • Deal Wins
    • Demand Drivers
    • M&A and Funding
    • Financial Results
    • Technology
    • Academia
    • Industry News
    • Features
    • Machine Translation
    • — Divider —
    • Slator Pro
    • — Divider —
    • Press Releases
    • Sponsored Content
  • Data & Research
    • Research Reports & Pro Guides
    • Language Industry Investor Map
    • Real-Time Charts of Listed LSPs
    • Language Service Provider Index
  • Podcasts & Videos
  • Events
    • SlatorCon Remote May 2021
    • Email Marketing for Freelance Linguists
    • Preparing for the Critical Google Update Coming in May 2021
    • — Divider —
    • SlatorCon Coverage
    • Other Events
  • Directory
  • RFP Center
  • Jobs
MENU
  • News
    • People Moves
    • Deal Wins
    • Demand Drivers
    • M&A and Funding
    • Financial Results
    • Technology
    • Academia
    • Industry News
    • Features
    • Machine Translation
    • — Divider —
    • Slator Pro
    • — Divider —
    • Press Releases
    • Sponsored Content
  • Data & Research
    • Research Reports & Pro Guides
    • Language Industry Investor Map
    • Real-Time Charts of Listed LSPs
    • Language Service Provider Index
  • Podcasts & Videos
  • Events
    • SlatorCon Remote May 2021
    • Email Marketing for Freelance Linguists
    • Preparing for the Critical Google Update Coming in May 2021
    • — Divider —
    • SlatorCon Coverage
    • Other Events
  • Directory
  • RFP Center
  • Jobs

Register For Email Marketing for Freelance Linguists and Learn How To Win New Clients.

  • Slator Market Intelligence
  • Slator Advertising Services
  • Slator Advisory
  • Login
Search
Generic filters
Exact matches only
Advertisement
SDL Announces Major Strategy Shift, Puts Units Up For Sale

5 years ago

January 21, 2016

SDL Announces Major Strategy Shift, Puts Units Up For Sale

Financial Results ·

by Florian Faes

On January 21, 2016

5 years ago
Financial Results ·

by Florian Faes

On January 21, 2016

SDL Announces Major Strategy Shift, Puts Units Up For Sale

SDL’s interim top executive, David Clayton, is wasting no time in setting a new course. Clayton was appointed as Executive Chairman after the departure of founder and CEO Mark Lancaster in October 2015. On January 20, 2016, the UK-headquartered language service provider released a year-end trading update.

First, the financials: SDL expects EBITDA for the year ending on December 31, 2015 to be within £20 to £22 million ($28 million to $31 million). Revenues are estimated to be within £265 million to £270 million ($375 million to $382 million), with the company’s business trends “broadly in-line with the first half of the financial year.”

The bigger news in the trading update, however, is the board’s announcement to put pretty much all of its businesses outside of language services and technology (or those complementary to it) up for sale.

Advertisement

This decision follows what the company says was a “thorough operational review of the Group’s activities” undertaken by the board. With this announcement it looks likely that Lancaster’s departure was related to a strategic disagreement over the future of the company.

So which units need to go? SDL says it is selling what it calls non-core products: “Social Intelligence, Campaigns, and SDL Fredhopper.”

These refer to SDL’s E-commerce Optimization product (Fredhopper), their Social Intelligence Solutions under Customer Analytics, and their Campaigns product, which manages enterprise marketing campaigns for clients.

As for SDL’s core business in language services and technology business the board says it “continues to experience good underlying growth, benefitting from secular trends such as the globalisation of brands and trade.” The board decided to keep Global Content Technologies (GCT), which it sees as complementary to the services and tech business and which offers “a strong degree of customer overlap and cross-selling opportunities.” It’s not all sunshine at GCT, though, with the board saying that it has begun cost-cutting to bring “focus and efficiencies to this segment.”

The new strategy marks a major reversal for SDL. The company has been actively pushing SDL CXC in 2015. It was prominently featured in their home page and they have been aggressively promoting their content on Twitter using the relevant hashtag #CX. They also hosted their own customer experience conference in San Francisco in May 2015.

The move is not a complete surprise. In SDL’s half-year results for 2015 the company noted that language services and technology revenues grew at 4% and 3% respectively, boosting their results with a £16.5 million profit. However, the release noted that SDL’ Technology division, particularly its Customer Experience Management (CXM) related products, did “not perform to expectations”.

It will be interesting to watch who will end up buying the units from SDL and what price the company can fetch. The stock market, meanwhile, seems cautiously positive on the move with shares in SDL rising 5% in the immediate wake of the announcement.

TAGS

Mark LancasterSDL
SHARE
Florian Faes

By Florian Faes

Co-Founder of Slator. Linguist, business developer, and mountain runner. Based in the beautiful lakeside city of Zurich, Switzerland.

Advertisement

SUBSCRIBE TO THE SLATOR WEEKLY

Language Industry Intelligence
In Your Inbox. Every Friday

SUBSCRIBE

SlatorSweepSlatorPro
ResearchRFP CENTER

PUBLISH

PRESS RELEASEDIRECTORY LISTING
JOB ADEVENT LISTING

Bespoke advisory including speaking, briefings and M&A

SLATOR ADVISORY
Advertisement

Featured Reports

See all
Slator 2020 Language Industry M&A and Funding Report

Slator 2020 Language Industry M&A and Funding Report

by Slator

Slator 2021 Data-for-AI Market Report

Slator 2021 Data-for-AI Market Report

by Slator

Slator 2020 Medtech Translation and Localization Report

Slator 2020 Medtech Translation and Localization Report

by Slator

Pro Guide: Sales and Marketing for Language Service Providers

Pro Guide: Sales and Marketing for Language Service Providers

by Slator

Press Releases

See all
6CONNEX to Partner with Interprefy to Help Clients Host Large Scale Events in Any Language

6CONNEX to Partner with Interprefy to Help Clients Host Large Scale Events in Any Language

by Interprefy

BLEND Raises $10m to Fuel Global Growth with End-to-end Localization Services

BLEND Raises $10m to Fuel Global Growth with End-to-end Localization Services

by BLEND

Iconic Launches INTRA Translation Platform

Iconic Launches INTRA Translation Platform

by Iconic

Upcoming Events

See All
  1. Smartling - Global Ready Conference 2021

    Global Ready Conference

    by Smartling

    · April 14

    When you can't traverse the world, let the world come to you. Join our annual global event from home.

    More info FREE

Featured Companies

See all
Sunyu Transphere

Sunyu Transphere

Text United

Text United

Memsource

Memsource

Wordbank

Wordbank

Protranslating

Protranslating

Seprotec

Seprotec

Versacom

Versacom

Smartling

Smartling

XTM International

XTM International

Translators without Borders

Translators without Borders

STAR Group

STAR Group

memoQ Translation Technologies

memoQ Translation Technologies

Advertisement

Popular articles

Poland Rules on LSP Using Google Translate; Defines ‘Professional Translator’

Poland Rules on LSP Using Google Translate; Defines ‘Professional Translator’

by Marion Marking

The Slator 2021 Language Service Provider Index

The Slator 2021 Language Service Provider Index

by Slator

Behind the Scenes of the European Parliament’s Pivot to Remote Interpreting

Behind the Scenes of the European Parliament’s Pivot to Remote Interpreting

by Seyma Albarino

SlatorPod: The Weekly Language Industry Podcast

connect with us

footer logo

Slator makes business sense of the language services and technology market.

Our Company

  • Support
  • About us
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy

Subscribe to the Slator Weekly

Language Industry Intelligence
In Your Inbox. Every Friday

© 2021 Slator. All rights reserved.

Sign up to the Slator Weekly

Join over 13,500 subscribers and get the latest language industry intelligence every Friday

Your information will never be shared with third parties. No Spam.