West Corporation
 |
|
| Public | |
| Traded as | NASDAQ: WSTC |
| Industry |
Unified Communications Interactive Services Specialized Agent Services Telecom Services Safety Services |
| Headquarters | Omaha, Nebraska, US |
|
Key people
|
Gary and Mary West - co-founders Tom Barker - Chief Executive Officer Nancee Berger - President and Chief Operating Officer |
| Revenue |
 $2.6 billion USD (2012 |
|
Number of employees
|
26,430 (2013) |
| Website | west.com |
Unified Communications Interactive Services Specialized Agent Services Telecom Services
West Corporation is a publicly traded telecommunications services provider based in Omaha, Nebraska.
West Corporation operates under two segments: Communications Services and Unified Communications to provide customer contact services, conferencing services, event services and emergency call operations.
The company offers, among others, the following specialized services:
Gary and Mary West co-founded WATS Marketing of America in 1978. The couple left the company in 1985 and Mary West founded West Teleservices with Troy Eaden in 1986. Gary West joined West Teleservices one year later as chairman.
During the first decade, West Teleservices hired thousands of employees and reached over $100 million in net proceeds. West Teleservices expanded their products through a series of acquisitions, including Tel Mark Sales Inc., Intercall, Televox, and HyperCube.
Additionally:
West Teleservices changed its name to West Corporation on Jan. 1, 2001. The company name had been West TeleServices Corporation from November 1996 through 2000.
Since 2002, West Corporation has invested approximately $2.7 billion in strategic acquisitions.
West has acquired:
In January 2014, four people filed a class action lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court (located in Chicago) against West. West owns SchoolMessenger, a service that sends texts and phone calls to help parents, students and communities instantly communicate about school events, closings and emergencies. The lawsuit alleges that West violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). TCPA is a federal law that prohibits companies from making telephone calls and sending texts to certain people in certain circumstances, with penalties between $500-$1,500 (per phone call or text) for each violation.
The plaintiffs sued West because they received text messages, and thus had "their privacy invaded". They made the case class action because they allege that West used SchoolMessenger to send voice messages and texts to "perhaps millions of mobile and wired phones on behalf of tens of thousands of schools and other educational organizations in Illinois and throughout the U.S."
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Wikipedia