TMone founder repurchases business

IOWA CITY - Fresh from announcing that his 10 percent stake in a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team is for sale, Corridor entrepreneur Anthony Marlowe has repurchased TMone, an Iowa City business that he sold in 2013.

Marlowe has renamed the company Mass Markets to reflect its expanded capabilities.

Mass Markets will operate as domestic call center specializing in contracting its services to American-based companies. It also will provide aggregated, compiled, developed, licensed, hosted and private label software systems for use by government, educational, non-profit and private enterprises.

Mass Markets, with nearly 500 people on staff, has four call center facilities in the Midwest with capacity for 1,500 employees. The company also maintains relationships and co-location with strategic data center partners in Iowa.

'I want to create jobs for Americans, and keep these jobs in America,” Marlowe said in a news release. 'Many American companies are one minimum wage increase away from having to shut locations.

'I am launching Mass Markets to help companies minimize these higher costs of doing business by participating in the combined management of information services and modernization of telecom.”

Mark Nolte, president and CEO of the Iowa City Area Development Group, said Marlowe's repurchase of TMone should produce new opportunities for the company and Corridor residents.

'Anthony is the guy who grew it,” Nolte said. 'He has a new vision for what that industry needs to look like moving forward.

'The call center industry, like most, is going through a lot of disruption. I think this new branding (Mass Markets) kind of speaks to the company trying to reconcept.”

Marlowe sold TMone to Jacksonville, Fla.-based Enhanced Resource Centers. He is the principal of Iowa City Capital Partners and will be CEO of Mass Markets.

TMone was featured on Inc. magazine's list of 'Fastest-Growing Privately-Held Companies” for eight consecutive years.