News notes
IMS Health, a Norwalk, Conn., research company, has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by investment funds managed by TPG Capital, Fort Worth, Texas, and the CPP Investment Board, Toronto, in a transaction totaling $5.2 billion, including the assumption of debt. Under the agreement, IMS shareholders will receive $22 cash for each share of IMS common stock they own.
According to Canada’s Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (MRIA), Toronto, digital fingerprinting may not meet the “reasonableness test” under Canadian privacy laws because the technology may collect more information than is necessary to identify fraudulent and duplicate respondents in online research. Digital fingerprinting technologies typically collect about 100 different data elements from respondents’ computers, and the information is then processed to produce a unique ID for each computer that visits an online survey Web site. Since the IDs can be linked to identifiable panel members for the purpose of identifying and removing fraudulent respondents or to remove duplicate respondents from online samples, the MRIA’s legal opinion asserts that it is highly likely that the data used as part of digital fingerprinting constitutes personal information, as defined in Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. Firms are instructed not to conduct digital fingerprinting in a surreptitious manner and to create a specific consent document regarding fingerprinting.
ARSgroup, Evansville, Ind., has been nationally certified as a Women’s Business Enterprise by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, Washington, D.C. The certification process is designed to confirm that a business is at least 51-percent owned, operated and controlled by a woman or women.
MDLinx, a Washington, D.C., research company, has completed the online panel verification process through the Marketing Research Association (MRA), Glastonbury, Conn. The review means that MRA has verified that MDLinx performs at the reported level and standards of quality. MDLinx is the first health care specialty panel verified.
Omaha, Neb., research company InfoGroup has reached a tentative agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Washington, D.C., to settle an investigation that began two years ago of the company’s spending and records. InfoGroup says it won’t admit any wrongdoing or agree to pay a penalty in the proposed settlement but will pledge to make sure its records are accurate and its internal accounting controls are maintained. The agreement is pending SEC approval.
Corona Research, Denver, celebrated its 10th anniversary in October 2009. The company has also rebranded and renamed itself as Corona Insights.
Acquisitions/transactions
Coleman Insights, a Research Triangle Park, N.C., research company, has acquired mediaEKG, a Media, Pa., research firm. As part of the acquisition, Coleman Insights will offer mediaEKG services to its clients. MediaEKG president Sam Milkman will join Coleman Insights as vice president and head its new Philadelphia office.
Montreal research companyiPerceptions Inc. has acquired the Web Analytics Solution Profiler product line to enhance its 4Q and webValidator solutions. The company will continue to make the existing product line, including a free trial version available at www.webanalyticssolutionprofiler.com.
Menlo Park, Calif., research companyKnowledge Networks has acquired Dimestore Media, New York. The acquisition is intended to help Knowledge Networks clients improve ad campaigns and quantify the ROI of digital ad campaigns.
Alliances/strategic partnerships
Oslo, Norway, research software company Confirmit has partnered with Clarabridge, a Reston, Va., research company, to combine Confirmit’s data capture technology with Clarabridge’s qualitative feedback analysis solution.
Ogilvy and Mather Worldwide, a New York communications company, and MarketShare Partners (MSP), a Los Angeles research agency, have partnered to create a tiered service offering by combining MSP’s analytics software Compass and econometric modeling capabilities with Ogilvy’s analytics, brand consultancy and media expertise.
New York researcher The Nielsen Company and Palo Alto, Calif.-based Facebook have formed a multi-year alliance to combine Facebook’s global consumer reach with Nielsen’s research capabilities. The first product of the collaboration, Nielsen BrandLift, is designed to provide marketers with effectiveness measurement for Facebook advertising. BrandLift uses opt-in polls on Facebook’s home page to measure consumer attitudes and purchase intent from display advertising that has appeared on the site.
London research companies TNS UK Custom Division and Research International UK have merged to become TNS Research International UK. The company will be headquartered in London at both Gray’s Inn Road and More London Place.
MSW Research, Lake Success, N.Y., and LABoratory and Co., a New York biometric communications company, have joined forces to offer an integrated set of tools to gauge consumer response to advertising. Merging MSW’s cognitive response metrics with LAB’s unconscious emotional response biometrics is intended to provide insight into brand equity and reactions to advertising.
Pittsburgh research companies Campos Inc. and CivicScience have partnered to serve businesses and non-profits in western Pennsylvania. The partnership will add three research products to Campos Inc.’s offerings.
SIS International Research, New York, and Singapore research company Brandtology have partnered to provide global online opinion tracking, competitive intelligence and strategic analysis.
Association/organization news
The Qualitative Research Consultants Association, St. Paul, Minn., has elected its 2010 board of directors: Abby Leafe, Customer Strategy Consulting; Nancy Hardwick, Hardwick Research; Matt Towers, Towers Research Services; Susan Thornhill, Thornhill Associates; Ilka Kuhagen, IKM; Susan Abbott, Abbott Research and Consulting; Susan Saurage-Altenloh, Saurage Research; Foster Winter, Sigma: Research Management Group; Manuela Fletcher, Andrew Fletcher Consulting Ltd.
The Council of American Survey Research Organizations, Port Jefferson, N.Y., has elected its 2010 board of directors: Susan McDonald, National Analysts Worldwide; Kevin Menk, Strategic Resource Partners LLC; Robin B. Arnold, The Gilmore Research Group; Roseanne Luth, Luth Research; Rahul Sahgal, Annik Technology Services; Jude Olinger, The Olinger Group; and Jeffrey Resnick, Opinion Research Corporation.
The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), New York, has introduced the Quality Enhancement Process Version 1.0, an online data quality research-on-research project. The project began with the Online Research Quality Council, created by the ARF to improve accountability in online research and set standards and guidelines for research buyers and suppliers. Several marketers, including Coca-Cola, Unilever and Microsoft, have committed to piloting and refining the Version 1.0 process.
The University of Georgia, Athens, in conjunction with the Marketing Research Institute International, has updated and expanded its Principles of Marketing Research: An Online Certificate Course program. The updates include new Web-enabled technologies and a capstone module highlighting trends in marketing research. For more information visit www.mrii.org.
Awards/rankings
Dallas research company Toluna received the AIM award for Transaction of the Year from the Nashville American Marketing Association for its acquisition of the Internet Survey Solutions division of Greenfield Online from Microsoft Corp. in July 2009 for $40 million.
Reston, Va., research company comScore Inc. was named a winner of the 2009 Chicago Innovation Awards for its Ad Effx solution designed to quantify the effectiveness of online advertising campaigns.
Additionally, comScore CEO and co-founder Magid Abraham was honored as the 2009 recipient of the Charles Coolidge Parlin Marketing Research Award from the American Marketing Association, New York, and the American Marketing Association Foundation, Chicago, for demonstrating outstanding leadership and sustained impact on advancing marketing research over an extended period of time.
Insight Marketing Communications Inc., a Navarre, Fla., research company, was honored with seven Lantern Awards by the Southern Public Relations Federation, Tupelo, Miss., for its work on behalf of the Gold Strike Resort and Casino.
NASCAR, Daytona Beach, Fla., received the Panel of the Year Award from Vancouver, B.C., research company Vision Critical for NASCAR Fan Council, its panel designed to engage with its fans and solicit feedback.
Separately, Vision Critical achieved a top-10 ranking among the Deloitte Technology Fast 50, which ranks the 50 fastest-growing technology companies in Canada, based on the percentage of revenue growth over five years.
And, Angus Reid, founder of Vision Critical and Angus Reid Strategies, Vancouver, was one of eight Canadian industry leaders named to the Marketing Hall of Legends. Reid will be inducted in January 2010 in Toronto.
QSR International, a Doncaster, Australia, research company, was named the winner of the Dell Small Business Excellence Award in Australia from Round Rock, Texas, technology company Dell for its use of technology in serving customers.
New accounts/projects
Pearson Education, an Upper Saddle River, N.J., educational media company, and Edexcel, a London division of Pearson, have selected Cologne, Germany, research company Globalpark to build an online community of over 5,500 teachers and education professionals.
Vancouver, B.C., research company Vision Critical has assumed responsibility for U.K. retailer Asda’s Pulse of the Nation panel. Pulse of the Nation was previously managed by the U.K. division of Horsham, Pa., research company TNS.
Separately, Vision Critical’s public opinion practice, Angus Reid Strategies, Vancouver, has been named the polling agency of record for PoliticalBetting.com, a U.K. political blog. The site will include monthly opinion polls used to track voter intentions, leading up to Britain’s next general election.
Paris research company Ipsos has adopted Westport, Conn., research software company RelevantView’s digital fingerprinting technology RelevantID to ensure the Ipsos panel is free of duplicate respondents.
New York researcher The Nielsen Company has been appointed by UKOM, the U.K. online measurement body, as UKOM’s official partner to create the U.K’s first currency for planning advertising campaigns on the Internet. Set to launch in January 2010, the UKOM Audience Planning System is designed to give advertisers and their agencies the ability to plan media schedules around a benchmark source of online data.
The Manchester City Football Club, Manchester, U.K., has adopted Shopper Count, a footfall tracking system, for its City of Manchester stadium, which houses the team’s ticketing operation, call center and store and retail services. Shopper Count is an offering from Synovate Retail Performance, a Milton Keynes, U.K., division of Chicago research company Synovate.
TIAK, the joint industry committee for television audience measurement in Turkey, has chosen Horsham, Pa., research company TNS to manage its television audience measurement. The contract with TNS will run for four years, beginning in 2011. TNS will establish a 3,500-household reporting panel and provide a TV meter system using TNS’s 5000 Series Modular PeopleMeter.
Evansville, Ind., research company ARSgroup has adopted San Francisco research company MarketTools Inc.’s TrueSample technology to improve data quality for online research. TrueSample combines validation, fingerprinting and de-duplication to ensure that respondents are real, unique and engaged. ARSgroup will incorporate TrueSample with ars.connect, the company’s copy testing solution.
Columbia, Md., research company Arbitron Inc. has commercialized its Portable People Meter (PPM) radio ratings service in five new local markets: Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla.; St. Louis; Denver-Boulder, Colo.; Baltimore; and Pittsburgh.
Helsinki, Finland, online entertainment company Sulake has selected Stockholm, Sweden, research company Cint to build youth panels on the Cint Panel Exchange for Habbo, Sulake’s virtual world for teenagers.
Separately, Field Force Pty. Ltd., a New South Wales, Australia, utilities company, has also joined the Cint Panel Exchange.
Reston, Va., research company Clarabridge has launched a blog page at www.clarabridge.com/blog.aspx, where experts write about customer experience management, technology, best practices and more.
New companies/new divisions/relocations/expansions
Research Now, London, has opened an office in Madrid, Spain. Samy Abdelhay will head the office.
London research company Verve has opened an office in Leeds, U.K. Andrew Wiseman is responsible for establishing the branch.
McLean, Va., media company USA Today has launched Buzz Bureau, a research division intended to offer marketing-based solutions. Buzz Bureau features four solutions services groups: the content services desk; the concept and design desk; the alternative marketing desk; and the custom research desk. Buzz Bureau is online at buzzbureau.usatoday.com.
MarketVision Research, Cincinnati, has opened a Philadelphia-area office located at 1787 Sentry Park West, Building 16, Suite 440, Blue Bell, Pa.
Columbia, Md., research company Arbitron Inc. has formed a cross-platform media measurement group to combine product development, sales and product management.
Survey Sampling International, a Shelton, Conn., research company, has opened a Mexico City location.
Phoenix research company Cambiar has founded a marketing and product consulting practice. Beth Rounds will lead the practice.
Focus Market Research, Minneapolis, has relocated its Phoenix location to 6710 East Camelback Road, Suite 130, Scottsdale, Ariz. The facility has been updated to include two group rooms and a test kitchen. The firm is online at www.focusmarketresearch.com
Research company earnings/financial news
In Tokyo, The GfK Group, Nuremberg, Germany, transferred its business in the custom research sector to GfK Custom Research Japan on October 1, 2009. This is a joint venture in which GfK holds 66 percent of the shares.
Japanese research firm AIP Corporation has entered into an agreement with Mizuho Capital Co. Ltd., to acquire outstanding AIP shares from Macromill Inc., in a management buy-out. All three firms are based in Tokyo.
Peanut Labs, San Francisco, announced third-quarter 2009 revenue growth of 52.3 percent over the prior-year period.
IMS Health, Norwalk, Conn., reported 2009 third-quarter earnings. Revenues were $540.8 million, down 6 percent, compared with $573.7 million in the year-earlier period. Net loss for the 2009 third quarter was $9.3 million, and diluted earnings per share (EPS) was $(0.05), compared with net income of $75.9 million and EPS of $0.41 in the third quarter of 2008.
Revenues for the first nine months of 2009 were $1,590.6 million, down 9 percent, compared with revenues of $1,748.6 million for the first nine months of 2008. Net income was $186.9 million and diluted EPS was $1.02, compared with net income of $212.8 million and EPS of $1.16 in the year-earlier period.
BrainJuicer Group PLC, London, announced interim results for the six months ended June 30, 2009. The company reported 22 percent revenue growth to £4.8 million; 18 percent operating profit growth to £231,000; and 6 percent pre-tax profit growth £243,000.
Clarabridge, Reston, Va., reported 50 percent growth in third-quarter 2009 sales over the same quarter in 2008.
Arbitron Inc., Columbia, Md., announced financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2009. Net income was $13.7 million, or $0.51 per share (diluted), compared with $17.0 million, or $0.63 per share (diluted), for third-quarter 2008. Revenue was $98.1 million, a decrease of 4.3 percent over revenue of $102.5 million during the prior-year period.
For the nine months ended September 30, 2009, revenue was $283.4 million, an increase of 3 percent over revenue of $275.2 million for the same period in 2008. Net income for the nine-month period decreased by $4.3 million to $29.6 million, compared with $33.8 million in 2008.
ComScore Inc., Reston, Va., announced financial results for third-quarter 2009. Revenue was $31.9 million, an increase of 4 percent from the third quarter of 2008. GAAP income before taxes was $2.8 million, compared to $1.8 million in the prior-year period, an increase of 56 percent. GAAP net income was $0.9 million, or $0.03 per diluted share, compared to GAAP net income of $0.6 million, or $0.02 per diluted share, in the third quarter of 2008, an increase of 50 percent. Non-GAAP net income was $5.7 million, or $0.18 per diluted share. Adjusted EBITDA was $7.4 million.
The Nielsen Company, New York, has committed an additional $2.5 million to the Council for Research Excellence (CRE), Haarlem, the Netherlands. The CRE was established in 2005 by Nielsen as an industry think tank with an initial $2.5 million grant. This grant brings the total amount invested in the CRE by Nielsen to $10 million dollars.
Additionally, Nielsen reported financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2009. Reported revenues for the three months ended September 30, 2009, were $1,250 million, a decrease of 1 percent over reported revenues for the first three months of 2008. Excluding the impact of currency fluctuations, revenues for the three months increased 3 percent. Reported operating loss was $393 million, compared to operating income of $124 million for the prior-year period.
Reported revenues for the nine months ended September 30, 2009, were $3,610 million, a decrease of 4 percent over reported revenues for the nine months ended September 30, 2008. Excluding the impact of currency fluctuations, revenues increased 2 percent. Reported operating loss was $100 million, compared to operating income of $408 million for the same period in 2008.
As of September 30, 2009, total debt was $8,745 million, and cash balances were $409 million. Year-to-date capital expenditures were $204 million, compared with $253 million for the first nine months of 2008.