News notes

Harris Interactive , Rochester, N.Y., will close its Rochester telephone research facility by the end of its fiscal year, June 30, 2004. The company will continue to operate its existing telephone research centers in London and Tokyo. The closing will affect approximately one dozen full-time and 150 part-time employees at the Rochester facility. A small group of the current employees will remain to perform quality assurance with telephone research suppliers, while others will be transferred to the company’s other operating groups. Harris Interactive has already moved much of its U.S. telephone survey work to call centers in Canada.

Acquisitions

Synovate Limited, a company forming part of the Synovate division of the Aegis Group plc, has acquired U.K. research firm The Research Business International from a U.S.-based group of companies headed by St. Louis-based Maritz Inc .

New York-based ZelnickMedia has acquired OTX, an online market research service, from its parent company IFILM Corporation. OTX will continue to be managed by Chief Executive Officer Shelley Zalis. ZelnickMedia partner Strauss Zelnick will serve as chairman of the board. Scott Siegler, who leads Santa Monica-based ZelnickMedia West, is the ZelnickMedia partner in charge of the company’s OTX investment.

Alliances/strategic partnerships

Rothstein-Tauber, Inc., a Stamford, Conn., research firm, and Directions for Decisions (DFD), a Jersey City, N.J., research company, have joined forces and begun business operations as RTi-DFD. The new organization will be headed by Mel Rothstein and Joseph F. Baldi. In other organizational moves, David A. Rothstein will become COO, and Lawrence Rubenstein, formerly executive vice president, DFD, will become executive vice president of the combined entity. Richard C. Witt has been promoted to executive vice president and will continue heading up the Columbus, Ohio office. RTi-DFD will maintain its headquarters in Stamford, CT and branches in Jersey City, N.J., and Columbus, Ohio.

New York-based Nielsen Media Research and TiVo have signed an agreement to deliver information on DVR usage to the television industry. The new service will be marketed by Nielsen Media Research. TiVo and Nielsen will collect data on television viewing patterns and trends by creating an opt-in panel of TiVo’s standalone subscribers. This fully consensual panel will provide information for the purposes of analyzing, processing and marketing DVR usage data to the television industry.

Total Research Latin America, a market research and consulting firm in Uruguay with offices in Argentina, has become a member of the Harris Interactive Global Network of market and opinion research firms.

Health care research firms WebSurveyEurope and Praxis Research & Consul ting have signed a letter of intent under which Praxis Research & Consulting will have immediate access to WebSurvey-Europe’s physician panel for performing marketing research. Praxis Research & Consulting will perform the questionnaire design and analysis of data.

Sigma: Research Management Group , Cincinnati, has formed an alliance with South Korea-based SIS Research & Consulting. As a result of this three-year agreement, Sigma will be responsible for conducting and managing marketing research projects throughout the U.S. on behalf of SIS and its Korea-based clients.

Association/organization news

The European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR) has announced the winner of the John and Mary Goodyear Award for the best international research paper presented at ESOMAR events during 2003: “Measuring preference for product benefits across countries. Overcoming scale usage bias with Maximum Difference Scaling,” by Steven Cohen, U.S.-based SHC & Associates, and Leopoldo Neira, LatiNetwork Dichter & Neira, Panama. The award carries a prize of EUR 3,500 and is sponsored by NFO WorldGroup. An international jury of marketing and industry experts selected the winning paper from a list of 21 nominations. The paper was selected for its innovative way to deal with problems of cultural differences.

Britain’s Market Research Society (MRS) has issued new guidelines to establish the legal and ethical frameworks surrounding the conduct of Internet research. The guidelines are binding for all members of the MRS. Covering all aspects of Internet research, the guidelines provide instruction on a range of potentially sensitive issues. These include guidance on the disclosure of e-mail addresses, identification of the client, correct methods of accessing respondents via the Web and conducting online surveys among children. The guidelines can be viewed at www.mrs.org.uk/standards/internet .

Awards/rankings

Gerry Cain, president of T.I.P. Research, Inc. , Parkville, Mo., was named 2004 Supplier of the Year by The Minority Supplier Council (MSC), a non-profit organization dedicated to the development of the minority business economy in Kansas City, Western Missouri, and Kansas. Cain was recognized for providing marketing intelligence that “made significant positive impact on his clients’ organizations, and for helping to educate clients on the benefits of research in achieving strategic goals.” For the first time, the MSC Supplier of the Year award was divided between two firms: those with revenue under $1 million and those with revenue over $1 million. T.I.P. Research, Inc. won in the under $1 million category.

New companies/new divisions/ relocations/expansions

Millward Brown has opened a new office in the Philippines. Nena Barredo has been appointed managing director of the new company.

Western Wats has moved its headquarters to the Canyon Park Technology Center at 701 East Timpanogos Parkway, Building M, Orem, Utah, 84097.

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based Interactive Tracking Systems Inc. (Itracks) has opened a European office in Oslo, Norway. Bjørn Haugland, newly named president of Itracks Europe, will lead Itracks’ initiative in Europe.

SRA Research Group , Jupiter, Fla., has opened an office in the Charlotte, N.C. region. Nancy Cook will head the new location.

Company earnings reports

New York-based Arbitron Inc. announced results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2003. For the fourth quarter 2003, the company reported revenue of $65.4 million, an increase of 13.2 percent over revenue of $57.8 million during the fourth quarter of 2002. Costs and expenses for the fourth quarter increased by 13.8 percent, from $47.9 million in 2002 to $54.5 million in 2003. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) for the quarter were $16.1 million, compared with EBIT of $14.1 million during the comparable period last year. Interest expense for the quarter declined 30.8 percent, from $3.8 million in 2002 to $2.6 million in 2003, due to reductions in the company’s long-term debt. Net income for the quarter was $8.7 million, compared with $6.5 million for the fourth quarter of 2002. Net income per share for the fourth quarter 2003 increased to $0.28 (diluted), compared with $0.21 (diluted) during the comparable period last year. In the fourth quarter 2003, Arbitron reduced its long-term debt by $10 million from $115 million to $105 million.

For the year ended December 31, 2003, revenue was $273.6 million, an increase of 9.5 percent over revenues of $249.8 million for the same period last year. EBIT for 2003 increased 8.1 percent to $92.7 million compared with $85.7 million in 2002. Net income for 2003 increased 16.6 percent to $49.9 million compared with $42.8 million in 2002. Net income per share (diluted) in 2003 was $1.63 per share (diluted), compared with $1.42 per share (diluted) last year.

For the second quarter of fiscal 2004, Harris Interactive , Rochester, N.Y., reported revenue of $36.1 million, an all-time high and an increase of 11 percent versus $32.5 million of revenue for the same period a year ago. Revenue for the six-month period ended December 31, 2003, was $69.4 million, up 11 percent from $62.8 million for the same six-month period last year. Pre-tax income for the quarter was $3.2 million, or $0.06 per share, up 56 percent versus pre-tax income of $2.1 million or $0.04 per share for Q2 of fiscal 2003. Pre-tax income for the first six months of fiscal 2004 was $5.3 million, or $0.09 per share, up 71 percent from the same six-month period a year ago.