TAI'AN, China, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- China Customer
Relations Centers, Inc. (NASDAQ: CCRC) (the "Company"), a leading
call center business process outsourcing ("BPO") service provider
in China, today announced it has
made strategic investment in Beijing Ling Ban Future Technology Co.
Ltd. ("Ling Ban"), an emerging
startup focusing on automatic speech recognition-related technology
development and applications.
Pursuant to a Share Subscription Agreement, on November 12, 2016, the Company acquired a
minority equity interest in Ling Ban
for a cash consideration of RMB 18
million. Additionally, the Company and Ling Ban agreed to establish a new joint
venture, Beijing Ling Ban Intelligent Online Services Co., Ltd.
("Ling Ban Online"), with the
Company contributing an additional RMB 12
million in cash in exchange for a minority equity interest
in Ling Ban Online.
"Ling Ban represents a unique
opportunity for us to accelerate the development of the next
generation of call center technologies," said Mr. Gary Wang, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
of CCRC. "By leveraging Ling Ban's
expertise in Chinese speech recognition, speech synthesis,
interactive voice response and automatic speech analysis, we
believe the strategic investment in Ling
Ban as well as the new JV will benefit us financially and
strategically by allowing us to lead our industry in the adoption
of cutting-edge capabilities such as artificial intelligence/
robotics in our next generation call centers."
About Beijing Ling Ban Future Technology Co., Ltd.
Established in February 2014 by a
group of automatic speech recognition experts affiliated with the
Computational Linguistics Lab of Peking University, Ling Ban is a Beijing-based high-tech enterprise focusing on
the development and applications of interactive voice response and
automatic speech recognition-related technologies. More information
about Ling Ban can be found at
www.lingban.cn.
About China Customer Relations Centers, Inc.
The Company is a business process outsourcing service provider
focusing upon the complex, voice-based segment of customer care
services, including:
- customer relationship management;
- technical support;
- sales;
- customer retention;
- marketing surveys; and
- research.
The Company's services are currently delivered from 11 call
center locations in Shandong
Province, Jiangsu Province,
Hebei Province, Anhui Province, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous
Region, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Jiangxi Province and Chongqing City, with a capacity approximately
of 9,984 seats. More information about the Company can be found at
www.ccrc.com.
Forward-Looking Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements as
defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans,
objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and
underlying assumptions and other statements that are other than
statements of historical facts. When the Company uses words such as
"may," "will," "intend," "should," "believe," "expect,"
"anticipate," "project," "estimate" or similar expressions that do
not relate solely to historical matters, it is making
forward-looking statements. Specifically, the Company's
statements regarding (a) its ability to generate profits from its
relationship with Ling Ban and (b)
its ability to generate profits from the establishment of
Ling Ban Online, are forward-looking
statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of
future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that may
cause the actual results to differ materially from the Company's
expectations discussed in the forward-looking statements. These
statements are subject to uncertainties and risks including, but
not limited to, the following: the Company's goals and
strategies; the Company's future business development; product and
service demand and acceptance; changes in technology; economic
conditions; the growth of the call center business process
outsourcing market in China;
reputation and brand; the impact of competition and pricing;
government regulations; fluctuations in general economic and
business conditions in China and
assumptions underlying or related to any of the foregoing and other
risks contained in reports filed by the Company with the Securities
and Exchange Commission. For these reasons, among others,
investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any
forward-looking statements in this press release. Additional
factors are discussed in the Company's filings with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available for review
at www.sec.gov. The Company undertakes no obligation
to publicly revise these forward‐looking statements
to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date
hereof.
For more information, please contact:
Tina Xiao
Weitian Group LLC
Email: ir@ccrc.com
Phone: +1 917-609-0333
To view the original version on PR Newswire,
visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/china-customer-relations-centers-inc-makes-strategic-investment-in-automatic-speech-recognition-company-300363332.html
SOURCE China Customer Relations Centers, Inc.