American Public Opinion Survey & Marketing Research Corp., Sioux Falls, S.D., is now offering a mobile focus group unit, featuring a one-way mirror, which allows focus groups to be held in virtually any city in America.
The Nuremberg, Germany-based research firm GfK Group has acquired Minneapolis-based Custom Research Inc.
Socratic Technologies, Inc., a San Francisco research firm, has completed a merger with the German research firm Markt & Daten, GmbH. The result is a new U.S.-based firm named Modalis Research Technologies, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco. The new company will have regional offices in Berlin, Boston, Dallas, Dtisseldorf, London, and Osto. Socratic Technologies will be known as Socratic/Modalis in North America.
SPSS Inc., Chicago, has acquired the VerbaSTAT product from Belgium-based DataSTAT, S.A. for approximately $1 million cash. VerbaSTAT is a software tool for computer-aided coding of open-ended survey questions. SPSS plans to continue marketing and supporting the VerbaSTAT product.
A new partnership between The NPD Group, Inc., a Port Washington, N.Y., research firm, and Norweigan software developer Future Information Research and Management AS (FIRM) gives NPD broad access to FIRM’s Internet research software, CONFIRM. NPD will use CONFIRM to perform concept tests, attitude and usage studies, product tests, customer satisfaction surveys and other research using online panels.
Campbell, Calif.-based Talk City, Inc. has acquired Research Connections, Inc. (RCI), a Westfield, N.J., on-line market research firm. Talk City’s Research Connections division will be directed by Amy J. Yoffie, RCI’s founder and CEO. In addition to market research services, Talk City offers services for on-line event production, customized on-line community, on-line customer support, and customer service. Additionally, Talk City, Inc. manages the consumer community network, www.talkcity.com.
Market Resource Associates, Minneapolis, has licensed technology from ActiveGroup, Atlanta, that provides its clients with the ability to view focus groups live, via the Internet, while the groups are conducted in the company’s downtown Minneapolis facility.
New York-based research firm Schulman, Ronca & Bucuvalas has established a new division, SRB Interactive, which will be headed by Raymond Pettit.
Cheskin Research and Hispanic and Asian Marketing Communication Research, Inc. (H&AMCR) have completed a formal merger. The new company combines the international and intercultural research background of H&AMCR with the technology, media and product identity researcH and consulting background of Cheskin. Under the terms of the merger, the two companies will combine their interests. H&AMCR will merge into Cheskin, with the new company retaining the Cheskin Research name. The merged company will maintain its headquarters at Cheskin’s current location in Redwood Shores, Calif., incorporating H&AMCR’s adjacent offices in Belmont, Calif.
The New York-based Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Greenwich, Conn.-based research firm NFO Worldwide, Inc. Under the terms of the agreement, NFO shareholders wi!l receive $26.00 worth of Interpublic stock for each share of NFO stock, based on the market price of Interpublic stock at the time the transaction is closed subject to a collar which, if exceeded, provides certain rights to each of the parties. The transaction is subject to customary conditions, including the receipt of approval from NFO’s stockholders and applicable regulatory approval. NFO is obligated to pay Interpublic a fee of $25 million if the agreement is terminated under certain circumstances. Interpublic has been granted an option to purchase approximately 4.5 million NFO shares for $26.00 per share exercisable in certain circumstances in lieu of the transaction fee. The deal is anticipated to close at about the end of the first quarter of 2000.
Benjamin Rietti, the former marketing manager of London-based ISPC, has bought all rights to the ite software product range from ISPC - the software and consultancy company started in 1991 by Mark Katz. The deal gives Rietti’s new company, e-tabs, full rights to develop, market and sell the suite of ite electronic fiche software to market research companies throughout the world. This will also give Katz and his team more time to develop their marketing research, IT and Intemet interests through their new company, Mark-it. The name of the ite software suite will be changed to e-tabs.
Capita Research Group, Inc., Blue Bell, Pa., has completed a private sale of the company’s securities to a major institutional investor in an initial transaction valued at $500,000, with the potential of an additional $1.5 million. Proceeds of the sale will be used for marketing and general corporate purposes. No further details of the transaction were available.
Market Facts, Inc., Arlington Heights, Ill., has acquired Motoreseareh, Inc., a Troy, Mich., firm specializing in international automotive consumer research. Motoresearch will operate as a subsidiary of Market Facts under the direction of its current management team led by founder William Saunders, and partners Elizabeth Mattar and Scott Miller.
St. Louis-based Maritz Marketing Research Inc. has opened a new 110,000-square-foot facility in Maumee, Ohio, which will serve as world headquarters for the firm’s Automotive Research Group, which had previously operated from two locations in Toledo, Ohio. Separately, PC Week magazine’s Fast-Track 500 list ranked Mafitz 13th in the advanced use of Web and e-business technology. The list was compiled
by evaluating more than 200,000 corporate Interact sites.
Scientific Telephone Samples has moved to 27121 Towne Centre Dr., Suite 290, Foothill Ranch, Calif.
Opinion Research Corp., Princeton, N.J., has surpassed $11 million in Federal Government task orders awarded through the General Service Administration’s Management, Organization, and Business Improvement Services (MOBIS) Federal Supply Service progam.
Capstone Research has moved to 695 Route 46West, Fairfield, N.J.
ConwaylMilliken & Associates (CMA), Chicago, has changed its name to Research International USA. CMA has been operating as a division of Research International USA since it was acquired in June 1998.
Brand New Corporation, Portland, Ore., will conduct research for the Oregon Raspberry and Blackberry Commission to explore awareness of raspberries’ and blackberries’ nutraceutical properties in the pharmaceutical, natural food, and mainstream food markets, and actively pursue new product development in those markets.
Research consulting firm Harriet Bloch, Inc. has moved to 110 W. 57th St., 3rd floor, New York, N.Y.
Survey.com’s BI/DW Research Program and Intelligent Enterprise magazine have announced a cooperative research initiative designed to produce a series of comprehensive reports on data warehousing and ERR The first research objective will be to identify the major trends associated with business-to- business e-commerce and IT’s plans for Web enabling ERP information. The research will be conducted by surveying a pre-qualified panel of users and decision makers that has been cooperatively established by Survey.com and intelligent Enterprise magazine.