News notes

Itracks, a Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, online research software firm, has acquired the patent for online focus groups from Greenfield Online. This move will assist in the development of Itracks’ Online Focus Group facility. As part of the agreement, Greenfield Online will continue to offer online focus groups and will use Itracks’ Online Focus Group facilities to do so. Itracks will purchase sample from Greenfield Online. "We felt that by owning the patent we could best serve not only our clients, but also the long-term growth potential of online qualitative research. This patent is an excellent fit with our goal of developing and improving our tools for the overall benefit of the market research industry," says Daniel Weber, Itracks president and CEO. "In essence, the deal allows both of our companies to concentrate our energies on our own core competencies."

Access Worldwide Communications, Inc., a Boca Raton, Fla., marketing services firm, has sold its Cultural Access Group to Lumina Americas, INC., an integrated marketing firm, for $1.2 million in cash, plus the assumption by Lumina Americas of certain liabilities of the Cultural Access Group totaling approximately $0.5 million. Los Angeles-based Cultural Access Group provides marketing research and consulting services. The transaction was unanimously approved by Access Worldwide’s board of directors.

Forrester Research, Inc., Cambridge, Mass., announced a workforce reduction which is expected to result in the elimination of approximately 126 jobs, or about 22 percent of its workforce worldwide.

ACNielsen U.S., Schaumburg, Ill., announced that it has found the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index to be a good predictor of future changes in consumer purchasing of food, health and beauty aids, and non-food consumer packaged goods (CPG). This is the first time the Consumer Sentiment Index attitudinal findings have been correlated to consumer purchase behavior. The research indicates a nine-month lag between changing attitudes and their manifestation in purchase behavior.

Controlling for other factors that would impact consumer purchasing, ACNielsen compared changes in the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index with consumer purchasing transactions from the 55,000-household ACNielsen Homescan consumer panel. It found that changes in consumer sentiment impacted purchases of consumer food, health and beauty aids, and non-food CPG categories, with changes in consumer sentiment leading changes in purchasing behavior by approximately nine months.

"The findings are very important and further demonstrate the Consumer Sentiment Index’s broad predictive capabilities," says Richard Curtin, director of the University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers. "Past work has linked our index with purchasing of durables such as automobiles and appliances. We have also found that the index is a good predictor of changes in unemployment levels that materialize nine months later. But this is the first evidence we have ever seen that the index predicts changes in purchasing of non-durables."

ACNielsen is conducting additional research to examine the impact of changes in consumer sentiment on behavioral changes within specific retail channels and product categories. Surveys of Homescan consumer panel households are providing additional insights into the linkage between consumer attitudes and behavior.

Jon Peddie Associates (JPA) has changed its name to Penton Digital Media Research. Operating as a division of San Francisco-based Penton Media since its acquisition in May 1999, Penton Digital Media Research produces market research reports in the areas of digital media, consumer media technology, software, and graphics.

Acquisitions

Redlands, Calif., GIS firm ESRI has acqtlired CACI’s U.S.-based Marketing Systems Group, a business unit of CACI International Inc. This acquisition involves the creation of the ESRI Business Information Solutions (ESRI BIS) group and the purchase of software, data assets, and methodologies. The new ESRI unit will retain all of the CACI Marketing Systems Group staff and will serve existing CACI customers in addition to new customers. The companies have also agreed on a joint partnership to pursue future business opportunities.

Taylor Nelson Sofres has agreed to acquire the broadcast division of U.K.-based BMC News and will combine the division’s activities with those of its broadcast monitoring firm TNS Tellex.

Wilton, Conn., research firm Greenfield Online has sold its custom research division to TNS Intersearch, a member of the Taylor Nelson Sofres group of companies. The Greenfield Online custom division, including the custom research staff, will be fully integrated into TNS Intersearch. Greenfield Online, Inc. will continue to focus on providing online data collection and infrastructure support to research companies. Under the acquisition agreement, Taylor Nelson Sofres group companies will be able to access the Greenfield Online research panel and other sample sources at preferential partner pricing. In the year ending December 31, 2001, the custom research business to be acquired had sales of $7.0 million.

Alliances/strategic partnerships

New York-based advertising and marketing information firm CMR has announced an agreement with Mediamark Research Inc. (MRI) to deliver MRI’s demographic data through CMR’s Stradegy2 and Target2 ad-tracking applications. Clients who subscribe to MRI can connect MRI demographic data with CMR’s advertising occurrence information.

Executive search firms Stephen-Bradford Search, New York, and Career Consulting Group, Inc. (CCG), Stamford, Conn., have merged. Stephen-Bradford Search specializes in the placement of senior level marketing, sales, and IT professionals across a range of industries including market research. CCG specializes in executive recruiting in the fields of market research, marketing information, market modeling, sales analysis and database marketing.

Spatial Insights, a Vienna, Va. GIS firm, has formed a strategic alliance with Spatial Re-Engineering Consultants (SRC), an Orange, Calif., provider of integrated micromarketing systems, under which Spatial Insights will act as a value-added reseller for SRC and its products, including Allocate, Solocast, Pinpoint, and Portfolio.

Association/organization news

Leaders of the market research industry, gathering in Geneva for the second consecutive year on January 14 and 15 to discuss ways to strengthen the position of market research, agreed to take action on a number of key priorities. The 50 leaders attending the global Research Leaders Summit, also called RELEAS 2, organized by the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) and the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR), decided to establish a global lobbying body for the market research industry.

The global lobbying organization is earmarked to address privacy legislation and any other legislative proposals that could have a detrimental effect on market research. Market research companies, client companies and market research trade organizations are expected to fund the global initiative.

Establishing the global lobbying body will be a step-by-step process. This year, the U.S.-based trade association CMOR (the Council for Marketing and Opinion Research) will be expanded to include Canada and Mexico. A European pilot effort, initially funded by ESOMAR, will be established this spring. Commitments for additional funding are already in hand. Similar regional efforts covering Asia-Pacific and Latin America will be set up after 2002.

"Attempts to restrict our industry are growing all the time. We’ve seen it in Europe and the U.S. in particular, and it is happening or is going to happen in other parts of the world. Our industry can affect these restrictive regulatory efforts, but only if we organize collectively and that’s what we’ve done today. It’s groundbreaking," says Jay Wilson, executive chairman U.S. of NOP World and one of the initiators of setting up a lobbying effort.

At the RELEAS 2 summit, the industry leaders also agreed to take initiatives aimed at giving market research an increased profile in the business world, relaunching the industry and empowering it to take new future business opportunities. In addition, the leaders agreed to take steps to strengthen cooperation between clients and providers in the industry, with especially strong focus on initiatives to optimize the role of market research at the client side.

The leaders endorsed starting the "Marco Polo" initiative, an industry research project aimed at collecting up-to-date, in-depth knowledge of corporations’ needs regarding market research. Industry leaders also approved the outlines of a plan to create an industry forum earmarked to continue the industry reform process started at RELEAS on a permanent basis.

The RELEAS 2 summit was attended by industry leaders from both market research provider organizations and corporate clients representing the global industry. RELEAS 2 is the second stage of a three-stage process aimed at redefining and strengthening the market research industry. The third and last RELEAS Global Leadership Summit will be held in January 2003.

Awards

Arbitron Inc., New York, has been listed among Fortune’s Top 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2001. From a pool of 279 companies, Arbitron was ranked number 52 on the overall list of best companies and number 25 on the list of best companies for women. The annual list ranks companies that scored high on anonymous employee surveys evaluating trust in management, pride in work and the company, and on-the-job camaraderie.

New accounts/projects

Opinion Research Corporation, Princeton, N.J., announced that its U.S. Market Research Group has been awarded a series of contracts with a combined value of $7 million. These contracts, with global technology organizations, will be completed over the course of 2002.

ACNielsen U.S., Schaumburg, Ill., has announced that CVS/Pharmacy, Longs Drug Stores Corporation, and Eckerd Corporation have signed on to use Category Business Planner (CBP), ACNielsen’s Web-based category management intelligence system.

New York research software company FIRM Inc. has signed ACNielsen to a global contract for flagship confirmit software application. The first phase of confirmit’s deployment is in support ofksia-Pacific operations, with deployment to all others to follow. Additionally, confirmit technology is being considered by ACNielsen as the foundation for future proprietary solutions.

CSM, Inc., an Atlanta-based research and consulting firm, has been selected by Lodestar Corporation to conduct a companywide customer satisfaction and loyalty analysis, a competitive analysis, a win-loss analysis, and a post-implementation evaluation. Zesearch, Inc., an Atlanta-based competitive intelligence firm, had been conducting win-loss research for Lodestar Corporation and now that CSM and Zesearch have merged, Lodestar will continue its program through CSM. Over a 12-month period CSM will implement an ongoing research program designed to evaluate the satisfaction of prospects and customers, from initial introduction through their long-term customer experience.

Wilton, Conn.-based Greenfield Online has reached agreements to provide online data collection solutions to Wirthlin Worldwide, Convergys Marketing Research Services, Harman Atchison Research, and Rothstein-Tauber, adding to its partner program through which it serves the online data collection needs of research companies.

Nuremberg, Germany-based GfK has won two multi-year contracts in Belgium and Austria. Together with Audimétre, a subsidiary of the Intomart GfK Group, GfK will carry out TV audience research in Belgium for the next seven years from 2002 to 2008 inclusive. The total contract volume amounts to EUR 17 million. Audimétrie, which has been commissioned by CIM (the Joint Industry Committee for media research in Belgium) for the last five years to measure TV ratings in Belgium, will supply the 1,500-member panel with new metering equipment in 2003. This will measure the reception of both analog and digital broadcast. GfK has also won a contract from Österreichischer Rundfunk (Austrian radio) and the marketing companies for private broadcasters RMS and RMC, under which GfK will carry out continuous radio audience research from 2002 to 2004. The volume of this contract totals EUR 1.5 million. The survey known as Radiotest has been carried out regularly by FESSEL-GfK, GfK’s Austrian subsidiary, since 1993.

New companies/new locations

ICR/International Communications Research has moved its corporate headquarters to a new location at 53 West Baltimore Pike, Media, Pa., 19063-5698. The new location includes a state-of-the-art focus group facility.

Joel Reish, formerly vice president/director of market research with Eagle Research, has founded Next Level Research, a full-service research company at 130 Ridgeland, Atlanta, Ga., 30305.

Millward Brown Precis, a media analysis division of the WPP group, has opened up in Millward Brown’s Fairfield, Conn., office, to take its U.S. presence to three offices. Stephen Debruyn will relocate from London to run the team.

Market Directions has moved to 200 Walnut, Suite 100, Kansas City, Mo., 64106.

Company earnings reports

Wilton, Conn.-based Greenfield Online announced that Q4 2001 was its first profitable fiscal quarter in company history. The company first achieved profitability in September 2001 and remained profitable through the end of the year. The firm has refocused its business to accelerate the development of the outsourcing services division and concentrate on serving the online data collection needs of research companies. New

York-based Arbitron Inc. has announced results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2001. For the fourth quarter, the company reported revenue of $51.4 million, an increase of 9 percent over revenue of $47.2 million during the fourth quarter of 2000. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) for the quarter were $9.3 million, cornpared with EBIT of $11.9 million during the same period last year.

Net income for the quarter was $2.6 million, compared with $7.2 million for the fourth quarter of 2000. Cost and expenses were higher than last year because of increased spending related to the RADAR service, Webcast measurement, the Portable People Meter initiative, royalties, data collection, and research and development. Interest expense related to the debt incurred in connection with the reverse spin-off from Ceridian on March 30, 2001 also contributed to the year over year increase.

Net income per share for the quarter was $0.09 (basic and diluted), compared with $0.25 (basic) and $0.24 (diluted) per share during the comparable period last year. The 2000 earnings per share amounts have been adjusted to reflect the onefor- five reverse split, which became effective following Arbitron’s reverse spin-off from Ceridian.

For the year ended December 31, 2001, revenue was $227.5 million, an increase of 10 percent over revenue of $206.8 million reported for the same period last year. EBIT was $75.5 million, compared to $74.8 million during the same period last year. Net income was $36.5 million, or $1:25 per share (basic) and $1.24 per share (diluted), compared with $45.3 million, or $1.56 per share (basic) and $1.54 per share (diluted), last year. The decline in net income as compared to 2000 is the result of the interest expense related to the $250 million in debt incurred at consummation of the reverse spin-off.

Forrester Research, Inc., Cambridge, Mass., announced its fourth-quarter and year-end 2001 financial results. Fourth-quarter 2001 total revenues were $34.7 million, compared with $47.9 million for the fourth quarter of last year. Net income was $4.9 million, versus $7.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2000. Net income per diluted share was $0.21 in the fourth quarter of 2001, compared with $0.30 for the same period a year ago. Total revenues for 2001 were $159.1 million, compared with $157.1 million in 2000. Pro forma net income was $20.2 million in 2001, versus net income of $21.6 million in 2000. Pro forma net income excludes a $3.1 million third-quarter charge related to a workforce reduction. Including the charge, Forrester reported net income of $18.1 million for 2001. Pro forma net income per diluted share was $0.84 for 2001 compared with net income per diluted share of $0.88 in 2000. Pro forma net income per diluted share excludes a $3.1 million third-quarter charge related to a workforce reduction. Including the charge, the company reported net income per diluted share of $0.76 for 2001.

St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Catalina Marketing Corporation reported third quarter results for the period ended December 31, 2001. Revenue in the quarter grew 6 percent to $114.7 million, compared to $108.7 million in the thirdquarter of the prior year. Quarterly net income was $17.4 million, or $0.31 cents per diluted share, versus $16.8 million, or $0.29 cents per diluted share for the comparable prior year period. The company’s research operations, conducted by Alliance Research, reported revenue approximately equal to revenue in the comparable prior year period. Earnings for the research operations were equal to approximately $0.01 per company common diluted share.

Milpitas, Calif.-based Internet audience measurement firm NetRatings, Inc. announced financial results for its fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2001. Revenues for the fourth quarter of 2001 were $5.1 million, compared with $6.6 million reported in the same period one year ago. Pro forma net loss for the fourth quarter of 2001 was $868,000 or a loss of ($0.03) per share on approximately 33.1 million shares outstanding. (The pro forma results exclude amortization of non-cash stock-based compensation and charges related to joint venture expenses.) This compares with pro forma net income in the same period one year ago of $1.1 million or $0.03 per share on approximately 32.4 million shares outstanding. For the year ended December 31, 2001, revenues were $23.5 million, up 15 percent from revenues of $20.4 million in fiscal 2000. Pro forma net loss for 2001 was $2.1 million, or a loss of ($0.06) per share, compared with a loss of $222,000 or a loss of ($0.01) per share in 2000.

On a GAAP basis, which includes the amortization of non-cash stock-based compensation and the loss on joint ventures, net loss for the fourth quarter of 2001 was $4.5 million, or a loss of ($0.14) per share on approximately 33.1 million shares outstanding. This compared with a net loss of $2.7 million, or a loss of ($0.08) per share on approximately 32.4 million shares outstanding during the same period one year ago. Including the amortization of non-cash stock-based compensation and the loss on joint ventures, net loss for fiscal 2001 was $17.6 million, or a loss of ($0.54) per share on approximately 32.9 million shares outstanding. This compared with a net loss for fiscal 2000 Of $14.3 million or a loss of ($0.45) per share on approximately 32.0 million shares outstanding.

Harris Interactive, Rochester, N.Y., reported results for the fiscal 2002 second quarter ended December 31, 2001. The company reported revenue of $24.8 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2002, in line with previous projections. The revenue includes $7.6 million derived from two months of operations from Total Research, which merged with Harris Interactive on November 1, 2001. For the second fiscal quarter, the company reported a pro forma net operating loss of $4.3 million or ($0.09) per share. The company also reported a restructuring charge of $6.2 million or $0.14 per share. Of this amount, $1.2 million or $0.03 per share represented current cash items, principally severance costs. The balance of the charge (approximately $4 million or $0.09 cents per share) consisted of write-offs of abandoned fixed assets and real estate, due mainly to the consolidation of the two companies’ telephone data collection centers. Reported combined loss for the quarter was $10.5 million or ($0.23) per share. At December 31, 2001, Harris Interactive reported $30 million in cash and marketable securities on its balance sheet, with no long-term debt.