Sequential poaches AT&T exec for CEO, also grabs Synchronoss activation tech

Telecoms customer care outsourcer Sequential Technology International has appointed grizzled AT&T veteran Kent Mathy as its new CEO.

This move coincides with the acquisition of most of the device activation business of fellow New Jersey outfit Synchronoss, which is focusing mainly on its white-label cloud business following the acquisition of B2B secure cloud provider Intralinks for $821 million. Sequential is dropping $146 million on the activation tech.

Mathy was formerly the Regional President of Southeast Mobility Market at AT&T as well as a bunch of other executive roles at AT&T prior to that. According to Bloomberg he also serves as a director of Synchronoss, which is an intriguing twist.

“STI is incredibly fortunate to have an executive of Kent’s caliber joining us to lead our exceptional team of employees dedicated to providing customer care and other solutions to the telecom, financial and legal industries, and other industry verticals,” said John Methfessel, Chairman of STI. “We made our recent acquisition with the intention of building a global brand of industry leading customer care solutions and Kent is the perfect executive to lead our company and strategic vision into its next phase of growth for the future.”

“Now that STI has closed our transaction with Synchronoss, we are positioned to transform the company while solidifying our position as one of the preeminent customer care/customer experience business process outsourcing providers in the world,” added Methfessel. “Our nine operations centers now give us global scale to offer our customers the solutions that they need in the manner that most fits their requirements.”

Over at Synchronoss the Intralinks acquisition is expected to close sometime this quarter, with Intralinks CEO Ron Hovsplan set to become CEO of the combined operation and current Synchronoss CEO Stephen Waldis moving upstairs to the Executive Chairman role.

“This acquisition marks another major step in the transformation of Synchronoss to significantly expand the scale and scope of the company’s enterprise initiatives and strong carrier relationships in attacking this multi-billion dollar market opportunity,” said Waldis. “Ron brings significant leadership experience and a history of successfully integrating companies into a single portfolio. I intend to stay active in the company, driving growth opportunities and continued developments on new product innovation. I am excited to be working closely with Ron to bring Synchronoss into its next chapter of growth.”