News notes
In late November, Minneapolis-based information services company Ceridian Corp. said it expected the planned spin-off of its Arbitron media and marketing research unit to be completed early in 2001 instead of on the company’s planned year-end 2000 completion date. Ceridian said the reasons for the delay included the timing of the Securities Exchange Commission review process. The company also said it received a favorable tax ruling from the Internal Revenue Service regarding the spinoff. Under the ruling, the Arbitron spin-off, which will create a separate, publicly traded company called Arbitron Inc., will be tax-free to Ceridian and its shareholders.
The United Information Group (UIG) has announced the reorganization of Audits & Surveys Worldwide (ASW). There are now three major units - MarketPlace Intelligence, Consumer Insight and Technology/Financial Services Group - built around specific client business requirements. UIG has appointed Carl Ravitch president of MarketPlace Intelligence, which was formerly the Audits Division. Marianne Grogan has joined ASW as president of Consumer Insight, the unit which brings ASW’s Surveys, Customer Satisfadtion and International Research businesses together under a common leadership to optimize development and service synergies. Lynn DeVon has been named president of ASW-San Francisco, continuing her leadership of the Technology/Financial Services Group. ASW has aligned its Technology/Financial Services Group with NOP, its sister company in London, as part of UIG’s global IT and financial research sectors. Simeon Chow has been named chief research & development officer, extending his responsibilities beyond ASW to include all of UIG-US.
The American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, Habitat for Humanity International and the Make-A-Wish Foundation each received $2,500 contributions from NFO Research, Inc., thanks in large part to the households that comprise the Toledo, Ohio firm’s marketing research panel. The contributions are based on a survey of 5,000 representative panel members, whose decisions direct the funds to the various agencies. Panelists select from a handful of charities listed on the survey form or write in the name of their favorite national organization. NFO then makes contributions in the name of the panel members.
Rochester, N.Y.-based Harris Interactive has announced a plan to repurchase up to $5 million worth of its stock. The firm anticipates completing the repurchase program through open market purchases or privately negotiated transactions made from time to time.
MindBranch, Inc., a North Adams, Mass., online aggregator of forecasts, reports and data from research publishers, has relaunched its Web site at www.mindbranch.com.
Los Angeles-based E-Poll.com has raised $1.4 million in financing with B2B-Hive, a New York City-based venture capital group as lead investor in a Series A round. E-Poll.com offers interactive research and marketing services for television, wireless and the Internet.
Blue Bell, Pa.-based Capita Research Group, Inc. has filed its quarterly Form 10-QSB with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the period ended September 30, 2000. Capita makes technology that measures respondents’ brainwaves to determine attention and consumer preference.
SPSS Inc., Chicago, has launched its corporate donation campaign to bring together corporations and universities to make data mining and analytical tools and training available to business students. Corporations can participate in the campaign as gold, silver or bronze donors, depending on the size of their gift. Donations will be used to provide local colleges or universities with licenses for Clementine, SPSS’ data mining product. Licenses will be valid for three years, after which a school can renew at the educational institution rate. The number of licenses will depend on the level of a corporation’s participation. Also included are courses to "train the trainer." Corporations may make additional donations to cover supplementary licenses or training as needed by their partner college.
New York-based Internet advertising audience measurement firm NetRatings has announced an initiative to measure rich-media advertising. NetRatings, in conjunction with Emerging Interest member companies, will develop a standard to measure ads delivered in rich-media formats such as the Unicast Superstitial, Java banners, Macromedia Shockwave and Flash banners, IBM Hotmedia, Audiobase and Bluestreak formats. (Emerging Interest, formally the Rich Media Special Interest Group, is an information source about richmedia advertising technologies and emerging marketing platforms, such as wireless, broadband, and interactive television.) Together, the companies will develop a standard protocol for tagging rich-media ads. NetRatings plans to track usage and audience response in its next generation of Insight Intemet measurement software. Syndicated rich-media advertising results will be available in the Nielsen//NetRatings audience measurement service.
Separately, Nielsen//NetRatings is now available in the Netherlands. And Nielsen//NetRatings has launched the Nielsen/NetRatings Media Alliance Program, a new initiative that offers media management companies the ability to integrate Nielsen//NetRatings data.within their online tools.
New York-based DoubleClick Inc., an Internet advertising firm, and Stamford, Conn.-based @plan.inc, an online research firm, have revised the terms of their acquisition agreement originally announced on September 25, 2000.
Under the terms of the amended agreement, @plan shareholders will receive $8.00 in value for each share of @plan common stock. @plan shareholders will receive consideration, at DoubleClick’s election, consisting of either a combination of cash, in an amount between $1.60 and $4.00, with the remainder of the $8.00 in value in DoubleClick common stock (valued at its average closing price for the 10 trading days ending one business day prior to the closing date), or all cash. DoubleClick will announce its election by 5:30 p.m. (New York City time) on the business day prior to the closing date. It is anticipated that the @plan shareholders’ meeting will be held on the morning of the closing date. The transaction, which will be accounted for by the purchase method of accounting, is subject to customary closing conditions, including approval by @plan shareholders. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2001.
RTNielson, a Salt Lake City research firm, has created two new divisions. RTNielson Interactive will provide Web-based research services. RTNielson Asks America will develop a monthly omnibus survey of 1,000 adult Americans. The omnibus study will beg-in on the second Wednesday of each month and cover nine basic demographic areas..The company also announced that is has increased its telephone interviewing capacity to 150 CATI stations.
Acquisitions
SPSS Inc., Chicago, has signed an agreement to purchase ShowCase Corp., a provider of enterprise intelligence solutions. The parties expect to conclude the acquisition in the quarter ending March 30 as a pooling of interests in which SPSS will issue one of its shares for every three shares of ShowCase common stock.
Alliances/strategic partnerships
LightspeedResearch.com, Basking Ridge, N.J., has contracted with Future Information Research Management Inc. (FIRM) to use FIRM’s information management and reporting application, confirm it.
Scarborough Sports Marketing, a New York sports marketing company, has formed a new partnership with the National Basketball Association (NBA) to provide sports measurement data and local market information. The NBA will now have access to Scarborough Sports Marketing’s database, which will be used to aid marketing and sales efforts. Scarborough’s sports measurements focus on four key areas: fan avidity; multimedia measures including sports viewing and listening; corporate sponsorship informarion including fans’ shopping and product/service usage; and leisure time activities.
Atlanta-based focus group Webcasting firm ActiveGroup has partnered with MarketingInfo, anonline marketing community. The partnership will focus on Webcasting live forums dedicated to examining industry issues at the MarketingInfo.com site.
ESPN and Horsham, Pa., research firm TNS Intersearch have signed of a new five-year deal to jointly develop and market The ESPN Sports Poll, A Service of TNS Intersearch. In the new five-year contract ESPN and TNS Intersearch will seek to create new sports-focused consumer research products, while continuing to explore the opinions of Americansports fans.
Dallas-based Digital Marketing Services, Inc., an online marketing research firm and a division of America Online (AOL), has.added to the roster of marketing/research firms partnering with DMS to offer online custom market research. The newest partner, Millward Brown USA, which includes Millward Brown, MB Interactive, MB Intelliquest, MB Precis and Diagnostic Research, will be able to offer its clients online custom research via AOL’s Opinion Place.
Separately, DMS and MSWinteractive have entered into a partnership under which MSWinteractive will provide advertisers and their agencies the ability to conduct television commercial research online. Samples for the research will be obtained through Opinion Place.
Rochester, N.Y., research firm Harris Interactive, has signed an agreement with Logisoft Corporation of Rochester to co-market and sell each company’s products and services. The ageement will provide a mechanism for both companies to coordinate Web development, cross-selling of market research, development and training, as well as co-marketing efforts. In addition, the agreement paves the way for joint exploration of Web and global business solutions such as product integration and product site integration and design.
Chicago-based Information Resources, Inc. has entered into a strategic alliance with Gazelle Systems, Inc. to provide beverage manufacturers with beverage tracking, consumer insights, and analytical services in the restaurant and hospi-tality channels. Boston-based Gazelle Systems provides customer relationship management solutions to the hospitality industry.
Association/organization news
The Qualitative Research Consultants Association, Inc. (QRCA), Gaithersburg, Md., has announced the formation of a Minnesota chapter. Lynn Bolnick of Lynn Bolnick Communications has been elected to chair the state organization; Susan Dunlap, a marketing research and training consultant, is co-chair. Other officers are Jean Nordgren (Market Works, Inc.), secretary, and Marilyn Rausch (Food Perspectives Inc.), treasurer. Persons eligible to join the organization must be principals or employees of independent marketing and social research companies or solo-practitioners in the field. Their professional, roles must be primarily designing, conducting, and analyzing qualitative research.
Awards
Chicago-based SPSS Inc. has been named one of the nation’s 200 best small companies by Forbes magazine. SPSS placed No. 77 in the Forbes 200 Best Small Companies in America, according to the November 1, 2000 issue. The SPSS ranking is based on its average of 31 percent return on equity over the past five years.
New accounts
DataFlux Corporation, a Raleigh, N.C., developer of data cleansing and integration software, announced that Custom Research Inc., Minneapolis, has selected and implemented DataFlux’s dfPower Studio software to streamline maintenance procedures on its databases.
Chicago-based Raydium Inc., anorganization that gathers Web user behavior information, has selected SPSS Inc., Chicago, to analyze Web behavior data. Raydium will use various SPSS software including: SPSS Base for analytical reporting and statistical analysis; Clementine server for data mining and predictive analysis; and Capri, a sequence association algorithm developed by MINEit Software for use with Clementine to mine Web consumer clickstream data.
U.K.-based interactive marketing firm 24/7 Media has selected Nielsen/NetRatings to provide Internet audience and advertising information throughout Europe.
Separately, FT.com, the online business news and data publishing outlet of the U.K.-based Financial Times publishing group, has chosen Nielsen//NetRatings to measure and evaluate audiences and advertising on the Internet.
Chicago-based Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) has entered into agreements with Dairy Management Inc. and the International Dairy Foods Association to provide both organizations with scanner-based tracking information for cheese and milk for the next three years.
Millennium Research, Inc. Apple Valley, Minn., has formed a strategic cooperative agreement with Kleffmann, a European agricultural research and marketing firm. The agreement will strengthen Kleffmann’s U.S. presence while expanding Millennium’s resources abroad.
New companies/new locations
KMG Market Research has moved to 5657 Fairway Blvd., North Point, Fla.
Research International New York has moved to 530 Fifth Ave., tenth floor (45th St.), New York, N.Y.
Company earnings reports
Princeton, N.J.-based Total Research Corporation has announced first fiscal quarter financial results for the three months ended September 30, 2000. For the first fiscal quarter, the firm reported revenues of $14,029,774, compared with $13,790,950 for the same quarter of fiscal 2000, a 2 percent increase. Net income for the first fiscal quarter was $504,188, or diluted earnings per share of $0.04, compared with $624,638, or diluted earnings per share of $0.05, for the same quarter of fiscal 2000. The number of diluted shares outstanding increased from 13,190,519 in the first quarter of fiscal 2000 to 13,405,157 in the first quarter of fiscal 2001.