Debt Buyer To Eliminate 110 Jobs

Debt buyer Asset Acceptance Capital Corp. (AACC), acquired in June by rival Encore Capital Group Inc. for $200 million, will lay off 110 people to eliminate redundant jobs. The deal was first announced in March.

Asset Acceptance, based in Warren, Mich., informed the state's Workforce Development Agency it would cut 73 positions in Michigan, where it employs about 640 people. Another 37 positions will be eliminated in suburban Tampa, Fla., where it employs about 130.

San Diego-based Encore said in a statement, attributed to Julie Reynolds, director of corporate communications, that the company has been working since the acquisition to "combine the support functions of the two organizations and appropriately scale the business to be as efficient and effective as possible."

Encore previously stated that the combined company will have purchased more than 60 million individual consumer accounts, including credit card, telecommunications, consumer loans and other related assets, with a face value of more than $130 billion.

Since the Asset Acceptance deal, Encore also closed on a 50.1% stake in U.K. and Ireland-based consumer debt management company Cabot Credit Management Ltd., in a deal valued at an estimated $177 million. That deal was first announced in May.